SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA
Hi,
We’ve put together this newsletter for those wanting to support the situation in Los Angeles and for folks affected by the fires seeking resources. Share this with friends and family in Southern California who might find it helpful.
This list isn’t comprehensive, but it includes links to other lists that are ever being updated. If you know of additional resources, please DM them to our Instagram @hotcactus_la, and we’ll update this accordingly!
Love, light, and SOS,
CS Studio
1. People Need Cash: After tending to your flock, consider supporting the most vulnerable among us. Also, The Displaced Black Families GoFund Me Directory is another amazing resource for families needing assistance.
2. People Need Help: There are many ways to assist that don’t require heaps of cash! Check out Mutual Aid LA to lend a hand where it’s needed. This Google Doc is also super helpful for this.
3. Animals Need Support: The Instagram account @eatonfirefoundlostpets is helping displaced pets from Altadena reunite with their families. Also, here’s a spreadsheet of other lost & found pets.
4. Everyone Needs Air: Here’s an article that makes understanding air quality after the fires clear and simple. And, N95 masks are available at all Los Angeles Public Library locations!
5. Folks Need Supplies: Looking for essentials like food, clothing, or sanitary items? This is a great resource.
6. Native Ecologies Need Reseeding: Altadena's wildlands support a vast ecology, much of which depends on local plant life. The Altadena Seed Library is currently accepting seed donations to help restore native habitats on the hill.
7. Families Need to Get Out of Town: Amtrak is offering $10 fares for those seeking refuge beyond the city.
8. Mental Health Services Are Essential: If you were affected by the fires and need pro bono therapy, here’s a list of available resources.
9. Hire a Displaced Gardener: Info
10. Navigate Insurance Claims: The Instagram account @iolovesyou has incredibly useful information for homeowners navigating the aftermath of the LA fires.
11. The Scumbag List: If you’re looking for rentals, avoid renting from anyone on the price-gouging list linked here.
12. More Lists: Here’s an amazing link shared by our friend @mindyseu on her Instagram account, featuring every spreadsheet she’s found related to the LA fires so far—it’s incredibly helpful! Thanks, Mindy!
Final Note for Helpers: There are countless ways to lend a hand. Does your elderly neighbor need help clearing brush? Can you foster a dog for a month? Yesterday, we gathered some friends at our studio to build DIY air purifiers for folks living in the burn zone, where air quality is compromised. Be creative. Start anywhere. Do anything. People need you!
Final note for folks affected by the fires: Help is on the way!
Before you go… Here’s an excerpt from Gary Snyder’s Smokey the Bear Sutra, a Zen-inspired deep ecology poem. Read it, breathe, and recharge before jumping back into the fray. Love to all helpers—we’re proud and honored to call you our friends!
SMOKEY THE BEAR SUTRA
Once in the Jurassic about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings--even the grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a seed, assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.
"In some future time, there will be a continent called America. It will have great centers of power called such as Pyramid Lake, Walden Pond, Mt. Rainier, Big Sur, Everglades, and so forth; and powerful nerves and channels such as Columbia River, Mississippi River, and Grand Canyon. The human race in that era will get into troubles all over its head, and practically wreck everything in spite of its own strong intelligent Buddha-nature."
"The twisting strata of the great mountains and the pulsings of volcanoes are my love burning deep in the earth. My obstinate compassion is schist and basalt and granite, to be mountains, to bring down the rain. In that future American Era I shall enter a new form; to cure the world of loveless knowledge that seeks with blind hunger: and mindless rage eating food that will not fill it."
And he showed himself in his true form of
SMOKEY THE BEAR
A handsome smokey-colored brown bear standing on his hind legs, showing that he is aroused and watchful.
Bearing in his right paw the Shovel that digs to the truth beneath appearances; cuts the roots of useless attachments, and flings damp sand on the fires of greed and war;
His left paw in the mudra of Comradely Display--indicating that all creatures have the full right to live to their limits and that of deer, rabbits, chipmunks, snakes, dandelions, and lizards all grow in the realm of the Dharma;
Wearing the blue work overalls symbolic of slaves and laborers, the countless men oppressed by a civilization that claims to save but often destroys;
Wearing the broad-brimmed hat of the west, symbolic of the forces that guard the wilderness, which is the Natural State of the Dharma and the true path of man on Earth:
all true paths lead through mountains…
Wrathful but calm. Austere but Comic. Smokey the Bear will Illuminate those who would help him; but for those who would hinder or slander him...
HE WILL PUT THEM OUT.
Thus his great Mantra:
Namah samanta vajranam chanda maharoshana Sphataya hum traka ham mam
"I DEDICATE MYSELF TO THE UNIVERSAL DIAMOND BE THIS RAGING FURY BE DESTROYED"
And he will protect those who love the woods and rivers, Gods and animals, hobos and madmen, prisoners and sick people, musicians, playful women, and hopeful children:
And if anyone is threatened by advertising, air pollution, television, or the police, they should chant SMOKEY THE BEAR'S WAR SPELL:
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
DROWN THEIR BUTTS
CRUSH THEIR BUTTS
And SMOKEY THE BEAR will surely appear to put the enemy out with his vajra-shovel.
Now, those who recite this Sutra and then try to put it into practice will accumulate merit as countless as the sands of Arizona and Nevada.
Will help save the planet Earth from total oil slick.
Will enter the age of harmony of man and nature.
Will win the tender love and caresses of men, women, and beasts.
Will always have ripened blackberries to eat and a sunny spot under a pine tree to sit at.
AND IN THE END, WILL WIN HIGHEST PERFECT ENLIGHTENMENT
...thus we have heard...
(may be reproduced free forever)
-Gary Snyder
Thanks for reading The Specimen Monthly!