Buzzword Books

03/07/2023

BALLARAT DREAMING - an award winning short story anthology by Clinton Smith

What really goes on behind the scenes in a country town?
Thirteen brilliantly crafted and interrelated short stories expose the lives behind the facades.
This collection of inter-related tales dates from the 1960's and is set in and around the elegant provincial city of Ballarat, Victoria. It takes us behind the masks of people related to that town with an intensity and depth that strips them bare.

Stories in this anthology have won ten literary awards: two Victorian Fellowship of Australian Writers Awards, four NSW FAW Awards, a Moomba Award, an Alan Marshal Shire of Eltham Award, a Shoalhaven COE Award and a Lane Cove Library Literary Commendation. The writer has also won the inaugural Mary Drake Award, a Bicentennial Literary Award for short fiction and an FAW award for a screenplay.

03/07/2023

New book from John Alexandra - "An Introduction to the Absolute"

This book is as rational as it is profound. An uncompromising investigation of the world and our inner selves. It begins with an exposition of contemporary thought — scientific, philosophical and spiritual. And demonstrates that these three ways of knowledge are fundamentally flawed.
Then it examines the perceiver. And deconstructs everything we believe about ourselves. It demonstrates that objectively, we don't exist. That all our thoughts, opinions, convictions, passions, regrets, recriminations, the whole panorama of what we call our personalities is simply a series of conditioned reactions based on fear. And that, unless we realize that we are nonentities, nothing more is possible.
To quote from the introduction: "Many so-called gurus declare that we are already everything — God. This assertion is as mindless as saying that we don't exist at all. Yet both are true. And false. Because reality is with us always and we are attempting to find what always was, and always will, exist.
What you and the cosmos consist of can eventually be sensed — but at a level of perception that mind, body and emotions can't grasp. The problem is to make these parts passive while remaining acutely alert.
Simple and extraordinarily difficult as all profundities are.
It requires total attention.
To remain in the space before thought.
To be aware of yourself.
To be."

The second half of the book opens the frontiers of insight, assisted by copious quotes from gurus and spiritual masters. There is no compromising here. The doors of perception, the text explains only open after the entire psychology has been abandoned, and only physiological life remains. The aspirant must die too himself, totally and completely. The book even explains how to do this. But the path is steep and I suspect that few seekers will have courage enough to tread it. Because it requires total sincerity and utter self-negation.
But the book is a practical manual on approaching Reality. And its triumph is that it makes sense, and reconciles, both outer and inner worlds.

14/10/2018

Thanks to everyone who likes Buzzword Books. We don't often get around to interacting with you but appreciate your interest.

Be sure to check out our new post on LEVEL 28 - the new SF title by Jack Cross. It's a tour-de-force!

Best

Dan

Buzzword Books is an Australian based eBook publisher that specializes in exceptional books from professional authors.
We only list books worth your while and keep costs low.

03/08/2016

Buzzword's commissioning editor, D. S. Mills, gives one man's view on why old media and journos are stuffed. And what to do about it!

Is the so called 'digital revolution' the root cause of print media running at a loss, of the slow death of magazine titles, of free-to-air TV gasping for survival?

As with most explanations, that's too simple. The underlying reason, as I see it, is ignored. In fact I see no evidence anywhere that it is being acknowledged. All right this is one man's view. But a voice in the wilderness has weight. (Really? How can that be?) Before I explain, let's look at the current carnage:



Death of the Journalist

In Australia, Fairfax Media (The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times, Financial Review and so on) is set to fire another 120 journos. So the newsrooms are on strike. Not that it will do them much good.

News Limited staff here (The Australian, The Telegraph) are already running on a shoestring. And, across the spectrum, newspapers are losing money - becoming increasingly less informative and more strident. As for News Limited, what can Rupert be thinking? Well Rupert (not a bad bloke and a sentimental Piscean) loves his mastheads and likes influence as well as pelf. So he is relying on subscription TV and Movie interests to hold the fort in this long, painful game of wait and see.

Where is the bottom of the market?

Will sales eventually stabilize? Surely there has to be a break-even point somewhere? Interestingly, the pain is also on-line. Digital versions of mastheads rarely do well and advertising revenue for both is down the tube. (Certainly, the river-of-gold classifieds that supported the dailies for years have migrated to the web.)


So let's assume the ad spend has migrated to the net. It's certainly declining on free TV with its dreary unreality shows. Then, again, the problem is dispersion. The reward for running ads on websites is dropping fast. As for pay per click. Forget it. So digital sites, and not just news sites, are also trying to predict the bottom. (See Growing digital access = reduced revenue below.)

Amateur hour

Meanwhile, everyone with a computer has been sold the myth that s/he can now be a star. The bloggesphere is awash with would be journos - and half-baked news websites proliferate. As W. S. Gilbert wrote: 'When everybody's somebody, then no one's anybody.'

The result? Even more dispersion, disruption, confusion of the market for news. Not to mention the proliferation of disguised propaganda outlets stemming from right wing religious groups.

Or conglomerates presenting warped scientific 'findings' in their own self-interest. Or promoting feel-good schemes to cloak their agendas.

I won't mention the often carefully disguised political sites. We live in the age of misinformation which, increasingly, is displacing fact.

Growing digital access = decreased revenue

What is not often stated is that this utterly uncontrolled proliferation of sites means an increasingly small share of the pie. Why?

Assume that the pie (the possible consumer spend of everyone) is X. The pie is then a fixed size - X. In fact the pie is shrinking because the effects of the GFC are still working through and may do so for another ten years. Every country in the world is strapped and swimming in debt. So people are fearful - paying off their mortgages and sitting on their cash. But, back to the illustration.

Let's say the size of the pie, the maximum consumer spend world wide, is now X. Assume there are only ten commercial websites on the web. X by 10 means everyone gets one tenth of X. But X by a billion of two and increasing…? The answer's plain. Less for all.

Dispersion and the declining ad spend

Back to advertising spend. Newspapers have one foot in the news business but magazines are in the advertising business. Most of their revenue comes from ads. According to the bean-counters, the editorial is simply there to fill in the spaces between the ads. Subscriptions/price of purchase helps to defray the cost of production and distribution. But the main game is ads. And there are now far fewer for print.

So the spend is being frittered away on-line in an increasingly piecemeal (the digital agencies would say 'targeted') manner.

And how does this affect the consumer (once termed a 'customer'). It makes him/her mad! Because the dismal welter of small ads and infuriating pop-ups far more irritating and unwanted than any full page ad in The Age. Some spend angry hours fiddling with CC Cleaner, Spybot, Uninstall, Local Temp delete and browser reconfigurations to block this crudware.

Certainly the full page ad in the press has fewer readers. But intrusive on-line ads are self-defeating because, in the second they have to present themselves before click-off, the viewer's response is fury. And if you can't click them off - apoplexy!

What is left? Viral advertorial sallies on U-Tube? Whoop-te-doo! It's not a good time to be the Creative Director of your mainstream agency. And, I suspect, the overall ad spend is still tanking. So that is the state of play. But not the end of the story…

The real reason media is cactus

Let's take newspapers as an example. They are faced with declining readership. Why?

Because people who read newspapers are getting news from other sources? Some are.

Because the news is hours or a day old before you read it? Yes.

Because you can get the gist faster on the web or radio? Yes.

Because young people don't read newspapers? Getting warmer.

Older folks read newspapers, or did before they got their smart phones. But older folks die. And young readers? Well, to start with, they don't read. Well not in that traditional way. They are the eternally distracted. They scan. Facebook. The twittersphere. (Twitter loses money, by the way.) Mindless games. And they and their so called friends are flat out telling each other what they had for breakfast. As for THE NEWS - they don't give a stuff. If Jackie O doesn't chuckle about it, then, as far as they know, it's not important. The 'Look at Me' generation is concerned with its self image, not the world.

Journos have had it because their consumer base is almost gone. The post-literate generation doesn't give a flying fart about who's mining coal near Sydney's dams and flooding disused shafts with water. (Yes, it's been happening for years. A boiler worker I know who worked there told me the whole story.)

So what should a crusading journalist do?

Try to join the ABC? But that's already short staffed and pinching most of its ideas, like you've been doing, old mate, from TIME and the BBC. Start an on-line mag? Heartbreak down the track. Write a book? You see what's happening to publishers, bookshops? Get a life. Post-literates don't read print. They tweet with the twits.

I suggest a nice cash business like a fish shop. Except there seem to be enough. (No, not a restaurant. They wink out like fairy-lights.) And who wants to run a fish shop anyway?

So does this mean the end of responsible reporting and the snafu of civilization?

Yes and yes. Have you ever heard of a civilization that didn't decline? The barbarians are at the gates and have been for some time. Everything has its lifespan. The net is not the problem. It's simply a facilitator - speeds things up, that's all.

Civilizations grow old and sicken just like us. When too many things go wrong with us - organ failure or invasive cancer - we die.

WE are the problem. The LCD of people is declining. And when that gets to a certain level - when the scientists, intellectuals, artists, philosophers and responsible journalists, are no longer listened to or lose their integrity - collapse is certain. Things overbalance. And a civilization is toast.

"Christ, I'm a journo. So what can I do?"

Your best. As long as they let you. "Whatever thy hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might. For there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave wither thou goest." Ecclesiastes.

Do your best. Now.

Be assured that the collective psyche - the mob or committee or parliament - is always dumber than the individual. The aim is to become an individual. Only the individual can repair things. We can't do anything collectively. That just breeds more corruption, tyranny, compliance. But individually, we can. See if you can nurture a flame. Even the littlest. With somebody. Now.

The block of jelly.

If Buddha and other individuals were right - everything is one. Unity in diversity. (Know how a Buddhist orders a hot dog in Manhattan? "One with everything.")

So if everything is also one thing, then everything I do affects everything!

Imagine a huge block of jelly. Now imagine that you - yes tiny, insignificant you - poke the jelly down there way at the bottom. Goodness! Look! The whole vast jelly block shakes. Even way up there at the top. Not as much as it shook down where you are at the bottom. But a bit.

One thing is certain, even if you don't believe it yet.

No good initiative is lost.

Never!

Ever!

Somewhere, it has an effect!

So, go on along the road. Do your best. And do it now.

02/08/2016

John Alexandra, author of The Wisdom of Being, answers questions for Buzzword Books:

Buzzword: E. M. Forster famously described fictional characters as either 'flat' or 'round'. Or, we could say, two dimensional or three dimensional. For instance, Dickens wrote flat characters or caricatures - creations founded on a single characteristic. In the realm of self-awareness and self development, we have heard you mention the need to live in four dimensions, not just three. Does Forster's insight have relevance here?

J.A.: Not really. Besides, time is generally considered the fourth dimension. And there are higher dimensions. In the psychological realm, talk of dimensions is relative only. To provide a more useful analogy, we live in a world or mode that is linear or horizontal. And vertical living is also possible but rarely discovered and certainly not generally accessible. From this aspect, we already live in the fourth dimension—that is, time. But verticality requires the timeless.

Buzzword: So verticality is the fifth dimension?

J.A.: As good a definition as any. You have the symbol of the cross - the two lines intersecting. The place to be in oneself is where the lines intersect.

Buzzword: Interesting. So what's the door to this fifth dimension?

J.A.: That's almost impossible to understand without extensive preparation. Which is why things so easily go wrong when people approach this question. At the moment we are affected by things around us and the reactions occurring in us. We are like machines, driven by every event and problem. Like snails, we withdraw when prodded, or, like crabs, attack when threatened. Fight and flight, honed over thousands of years into fear and desire by a now highly sophisticated ego which is, at base, a self-defence mechanism. Everything is self defence, including the less obvious forms such as shyness, humility, self degradation and charity - that is, helping others so that one can feel better, special or superior and so on. The ego is a wily beast. And if, by accident, we come to see this process a little—this identification with everything within and outside us—it disgusts us. The one thing we can't bear is to see ourselves objectively. Yet that is precisely what is needed to reach the threshold of the door you describe.

Buzzword: So what hope do we have?

J.A.: Hope is another trap - another reaction or compensation shutting us off. Objectively we have no hope in this direction at all. In fact, things are arranged so that the vast bulk of humanity is blind to the possibility of fifth-dimensional living. If it were more accessible, a whole lot of necessary processes that humanity exists for would be negated. Some say this would be fatal for the earth.

Buzzword: We now seem to be discussing Cosmology. Are you saying the earth is a living being?

J.A.: Yes. And the thin film of life on earth acts as a kind of nerve ending for it.
Cosmic formations live and die as we do—but of course on a vastly greater time-scale. We see the earth as a globe. But seen from higher dimensions, this view will be wrong. It is like looking at a minute segment of a vast spiral and taking it as the whole. It completely ignores movement, the differing aspects of time and much else. For instance, looking in the other direction, the life of an electron is minute compared to ours. And, on a vastly larger scale, the frantic ant may experience more in a second, by its particular speed of perception, than we do in an hour. 'As above, so below' relates to scale and different perceptions of time. Everything is one—but aspects of that one. Our perception is too limited to see things as they really are. Can an atom in your big toe have an overall view of your body or its purpose?

Buzzword: I think we're getting off the subject a bit. We were discussing the door to the fifth dimension.

J.A.: Yes.

Buzzword: And you said that the first thing is to see that we are nothing but reactions?

J.A.: An essential first step. And it needs to be completely seen and constantly remembered. Which is almost impossible without external help.

Buzzword: And when we see it, what then?

J.A.: You go too fast. You're ready to skip over a lifetime of self-study and inner effort.

Buzzword: What inner effort.

J.A.: There are many formulations for that.

Buzzword: Such as?

J.A.: Psychological death. Suchness. Purposelessness. Self-remembering. Mindfulness. The Silence. Emptiness. Nirvana. Hara no aru hito. The Void. Every authentic tradition has its particular terminology. But no words convey the sense. It is very easy to take words for experience and for the wrong experience. Such as self-satisfaction. Hence the various New Age delusions and the morass of spurious Gurus with their gullible, anxious, defensive disciples.

Buzzword: So the door isn't easy to find?

J.A.: The right door is hard to find. Because there are many imitation doors—most opening onto bogs, cliffs, self-delusion and bankruptcy hearings.

Buzzword: So what hope does the average person have?

J.A.: None. Because he's not looking for a door. The right door is for those desperately looking. The lukewarm never find it.

Buzzword: Does this relate to the old yogi saying: "When the disciple is ready, the Guru appears?"

J.A.: Yes. That's a true statement, no matter how improbable it seems.

Buzzword: So what is the nature of the authentic disciple's desperation?

J.A.: The authentic disciple is someone who knows life well and finds it not enough. He asks, "Is this all there is?" and "Why am I here? What is my purpose here?" And sometimes, "Why is there anything? What's this all about?" He has a burning question to do with himself and life. Although he doesn't know it, in his core he is already what he seeks, so feels the possibility of something else—a truer way of living. He has an intimation of Being. He is seeking his true self.

Buzzword: And finds the door?

J.A.: He has the possibility of finding the door. He may be killed in a war or car accident. And possibility is not yet practice. Such a seeker has direction but not yet a method.

Buzzword: And the method is?

J.A.: That's a lifetime's study and emerges only slowly. It begins simply, expands and deepens. In a sense, you can start anywhere with something practical and true. Like the spokes of the wheel, all paths lead to the hub. But the hub has to be empty. Otherwise the wheel wouldn't turn.

Buzzword: All very mystical. Not much to hang your hat on there. Can you describe a simple starting point?

J.A.: Very well. Remain apart. Or as one Sage said, 'Accept everything but be very careful not to become attached to anything whatever.'

Buzzword: That's impossible.

J.A.: You can't approach the supernal by doing what is possible because it doesn't create enough energy. It requires energy of a particular intensity.

Buzzword: So it comes down to intensity?

J.A.: A particular type of intensity. You may have seen the ancient symbol of Janus—the god with two heads. He is looking in two directions at once. Like all objective symbols, it has an inner meaning. Janus is looking at himself as well as outward—looking in two directions simultaneously. This is what's needed. And it's a lifetime study that never becomes automatic. Because real effort never becomes easy. It has to be voluntary and repeated. Easier methods such as the famous religious obedience are too slow and uninformed. They half-work but miss the mark.

Buzzword: Is there a simple formulation for all this?

J.A.: There is, but it doesn't help much without a guide.

Buzzword: You said, 'Remain apart.' Can you expand on that?

J.A.: Can you remain apart from your thoughts? Your physical tensions? Your conditioning? Your emotions? Resentments? Opinions? Relationships? Problems? Likes? Dislikes? Hopes? Fears? Every reaction you have?

Buzzword: Of course not. You've have to be dead.

J.A.: Exactly. Psychological death.

Buzzword: But wouldn't that be selfish and totally unbearable for everyone who cared for you?

J.A.: Yes. So you would have to act yourself on the surface to avoid the external criticism - while remaining apart inside.

Buzzword: Which sounds not only impossible but totally egotistical.

J.A.: Egotistical in the right way. And no one says you have to do it. A voluntary discipline is voluntary. And, yes, it is impossible until you learn to be thoroughly dead. And that can take a lifetime.

Buzzword: So, right at the end of your life, you learn how to live?

J.A.: Yes. Because human metamorphosis is inner, not outer. Consider the butterfly. It spends up to seven years underground as a grub, emerges as a chrysalis and for the last three weeks, is able to fly and fulfil its function. Just three weeks after years!

Buzzword: So how do I remain apart?

J.A.: You're here - sitting here, thinking, leaning forward, tense. Now, physically, know it from within. Don't think about it. Know it through sensation. Know, for instance that you're frowning now - and breathing - and your foot is tapping. Can you manage it?Buzzword: A little. Just for a moment, when you mentioned it.J.A.: And now? Were you aware that your hand made this gesture just then.Buzzword: Well, no, to be honest. I was thinking about what I'd say next. And that took me entirely. I guess I was back in my thoughts, my head.J.A.: So, the challenge is right there. How to exist behind one's manifestations? In other words, how to do the impossible?Buzzword: That's my question to you.J.A.: Well, this is a long way off, but since you ask… You have to discover something in yourself more important than your little ego. Then listen to it as often as you can. Every moment when you don't is, objectively, wasted. Lost! And yet, paradoxically, the only time you have is now. Now includes both vertical and horizontal. Or could. If you're tuned. And it brings the ability to live two lives at once - to live in both eternity and time, rather than just exist. You're looking puzzled.Buzzword: I am.J.A.: You see how hard it is to hear real things?

You can find John Alexandra's book 'The Wisdom of Being' on Buzzword Books.