Autobiography of a Yogi
By James Abbott
Foreword:
I once had a girlfriend, not one, but many. However, this particular girlfriend confided in me that she believed she had caused the Christchurch earthquake. Her father was a retired BP executive and active trader. She also confided in me that she once smuggled crack from India to Australia, and that her previous boyfriend was hanged, presumably by himself, so I made a mental note not to do drugs with this woman and make sure the breakup was amicable. It wasn’t. I think she gave me a hell of a lot of trouble, but the sex was great, and her life was and I expect remains extremely comfortable.
Well, over a shared love of sushi I realised that perhaps I had caused Occupy Wall St, and later ISIS, which today looks more and more like a militarised Occupy Wall St. I didn’t, although I did conscientiously grow to oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on family and legal grounds, and later became a ‘truther’ in the world of mass surveillance to uncover war crimes and organised criminality quite by chance. I have travelled the world widely living in Germany, Canada, Australia and even founded a political party in my native New Zealand. I am no stranger to spies, politicians and corporate gangs, and quite frankly think we are all crazy until we realise we are God. This gradual realisation of our own collective enlightenment hindered my work as an engineer, and project manager in the telecommunications sector during the rise of fascist non-God entities like Prism and Squeaky Dolphin, and I would have made a poor smuggler. Nevertheless I thrived on heavenly wisdom, made an excellent aerobatic pilot and general thrill seeker intent on making the world a better place than it was when I found it, or die trying. We each have a free will, and fight for what we believe in, and this chapter I hope will summarise in three poems what that is, and isn’t before, I continue with my life story.
Poem one
Every morning after my prayers
“Life is a long journey,
a challenge begun,
a unique personal banquet,
not to be shied from or shunned,
so go out into this world,
spread laughter not tears,
unite with all nations,
and dispel dreaded fears,
we can all be as one,
rejoice in togetherness,
make this world a better place.
Be aware to challenge your fear of learning.
[Remember], there is no failure,
except in no longer trying” Richard Bach
Poem two
Every morning after my prayers
“Believe in yourself,
in the power you have,
to control your own life day by day,
believe in the strength that you have deep inside,
let your faith help show you the way,
believe in tomorrow and what it will bring,
let a hopeful heart carry you through,
for things will work out if you trust and believe,
there is no limit to what you can do” Anonymous
Poem three
The anthem of the Ving Chun Kuen and Ba Qua Club and ode to “Iron draped in layers of silk” on Wing Chun by my friend Kevin Earle.
“Take the root and break the limbs,
chop what can be chopped and break what can be broken,
crush the will and destroy the seed,
this is the way of the warrior.
But remember, the greatest victory is to win without fighting”
The last line is of course an excellent discourse from “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu.
Whenever I am looking for inspiration, I turn inward and listen to the likes of Sun Tzu, Lao Tze, Osho, Tibetan bell music and even throat singing. We are after all, resonant, omniscient, omnipotent beings of light. We are one.
Chapter one:
My earliest memory is probably listening to my mothers prayers while in the womb. I couldn’t see in the traditional sense, but I could feel the presense of an order in the physical world, which was clearly made up of musical notes, whizzing and whirling cosmic orbits and vast areas of empty space. Regardless of whether this occurred, I certainly would, when praying, in the Christian “one who saves” tradition of my mother, get very deep intellectually, and almost fade into this awareness as a sort of semi-lucid dream. Still, this is not something I regularly experience any more. Past, present, and future are one to my present understanding.
At the time of realising she was pregnant, my mother had had an invasive surgery to see if in fact there was a reason she was not conceiving. The doctor was amazed that I survived his prodding and was born fit and healthy, with a big head, misshapen by a forceps delivery, but nevertheless quickly learning to crawl, walk and yell.
At the time of crawling I went and fell down a series of steps, ending in a head spin. I have never been KO’d, but recall several traumatic experiences as a toddler, all of which became quite exciting as I got older. For example, break dancing, bungy, climbing and aerobatics. When introduced to break dancing, I was shown how to crazy legs, caterpillar and head spin, and decided that I never wanted the fear or pain of something to hold me back from experiencing the insight that comes with conquering ones fears in this life. My mother and father encouraged me, the later making certain that my intense concentration was never interrupted. I became adept at building toy scuba tanks out of plastic soft drink bottles to wear on my back as I slid around the linoleum, parachutes for my toy soldiers from the top bunk, and a pretty good Michael Jackson impersonator at Kindergarten, to impress my first crush, the Kindergarten teacher.
Looking back, I was exposed to domestic violence in the home as my parents divorced, and raising my voice, shouting and generally behaving hysterically was a trait I adopted as an “only child” toddler to get my way. Whether it was a feverish chant for a bottle of milk, of which I was known to drink three in one night, tossing them out of the cot when they were done, or lambasting my patient, kind, childhood friends over “not sharing” my toys (that was immediately handing over any toy I wanted when I wanted it, else they could go home), it took me many years to master the art of Self observation. I still react as a Zen Buddhist master might do, to shock a distracted consciousness but with compassion. Sharing is caring as my couch surfers and political patriots can attest.
My adventurous nature was encouraged by my mother and my friends parents. We formed the “Champion Road” gang, that is the children on Champion Road in Richmond who used to walk to kindergarten and later primary school together. I was often tackling sheep, throwing fruit, stealthily raiding the fruit orchards in camouflage on Champion Road, and riding on the bonnet of my parents car, or climbing in and out of the car windows like I had seen on TV in the Dukes of Hazard TV series by age six. If my parents weren’t looking, I watched the A Team, and took an interest in superheroes like Batman and Superman. We tied tea towels to the backs of our necks and jumped off roofs as high as ten feet at age four, sniffed petrol, and occasionally were attacked feeding the billy goat and butted fiercely into the ditch.
The McDougall’s had a fantastic creek system on their place filled with banana passion fruit, willows, which made excellent bows and arrows for children, and crawlies, or yabbies as they are called in Australia and little fish. Sometimes we would throw a handbag on the road tied with fishing line and wait for a car to stop. When they got close, we could pull the nylon and give them a fright. Another time, we found a bag in the creek full of drowned or soon to be drowned kittens.
I had cats, rabbits, skinks, guinea pigs and peacocks as pets beside the sheep and although I didn’t get a dog until I was aged 12, dogs will always be my favourite pets. My step father taught me how to catch skinks and ride a bike. My first toy bike was a “Chips” motorcycle, the envy of all my friends, but not as fast a tricycle.
Another friend as a toddler eventually became my Uchuuzen Kempo instructor. His Dad was the first westerner to train in the Kodokan with the Olympic Judo team. His mother was Japanese, and I remember the food was amazing, but she was very hard to understand. The brethren got stuck into her for her Buddhist or perhaps Taoist beliefs, and when she divorced, I never really saw her again.
At eighteen I visited Japan and my friends parent’s family. While at preschool I was always on the lookout for ways to become a better Fire Chief (whatever that 80’s show was it had a lasting impact), Superhero or Race Car driver. Eventually these gave way to wanting to be a Jedi, Astronaut and Fighter Pilot, but my love of meditation and the martial arts remained, especially as I fought regularly with the bullies, who didn’t seem to respect my “only child” status.
Chapter two:
At age four my parents divorced and I had to get used to all the men hitting on my attractive single mum. I learnt what did and didn’t work when talking to woman. Some of the men had children of their own, and I enjoyed trading Star Wars cards with them, and was even gifted a stack of cards by an Egyptian family friend’s son, who also taught me to tie my shoelaces. For some reason I wasn’t good at that or riding a bike, probably because my Dad wasn’t around and was more interested in teaching me to swing a cricket bat and drink beer, and besides, I had batta bullets which as money got tight, became Charlie Browns. Mum thought I should always have shoes, and occasionally cigarettes. These days, I prefer bare feet. One of the great Wing Chun masters swore that massaging the feet by standing on a golf ball and rolling it around that foot was very important reflexology for the whole body. You get a similar experience walking or running on stones and my friends and I would take of our shoes and have races to see whose feet were the toughest. We also made go carts with the older kids and I remember a quite horrific crash off the top of the road, and another gory incident when a hand trowel impaled someone’s skull. Both were accidents, without lasting injury, but I have always been wary of the speed wobbles, and to a lesser extent bladed instruments. It was while training Wing Chun in Germany as an adult that I first impaled myself with a knife. A slippery kitchen floor, a sharp knife, and a really fast thrust to the tune of Rocky III’s eye of the tiger had me and my drunken kiwi software engineers looking for a hospital at about 3am one evening in Rosenheim, with just enough German not to get anyone arrested! Other adventures in Europe deserve their own chapter, for two years I learnt an awful lot, and if I wasn’t living in New Zealand, I would chose to live in Switzerland instead.
Chapter three:
The Abbotts had a big farm at South Canterbury called Hurworth. I could tell Granddad Abbott was a real joker, but my Dad warned me he was a hard man, and that my Great Grandfather John George Abbott was not the kind of man you would turn your back on. The Abbott’s were smart and hard working and my Uncle passed all to suddenly, leaving a 2002 Sports Ute yet to make the trip across from the United States. My grandfather was a big fan of Canada, which inspired me to immigrate there at one point. I don’t know what he had hoped to find there that wasn’t already in New Zealand, except some of his family. My Grandmother was a German Jew, a Webber. I was circumcised but raised Anglican. Although many years later, I will always be grateful to my Uncle for taking me to Warbirds over Wanaka and introducing me to all the machinery and big farm family Christmas. It really toughened me up. And to Granddad Abbott for directing the family business.
Chapter four:
My mother remarried when I was eight, and while we moved from Richmond to Hope after the divorce I had been able to attend the same school Henley Primary. In 1987 I moved to Golden Bay- Paradise on Earth! I had fortunately visited Collingwood Area School previously and there was another childhood friend there with whom I urged to perform gladiatorial battles using plastic shield and swords, until his mother protested. Our friendship matured and we collected Star Wars figures and made Freebot magazine, which to this day, has yet to become a billion dollar publishing empire. We were grateful for a massive chunk of land and nature, beaches, driftwood (which made excellent blasters) and all sorts of dangerous creatures like crabs, razor bladed oysters and eels in Para para estuary. My ‘real’ dad bought me an inflatable boat one Christmas with an electric outboard and we used to go across to Jacket’s Island near Motueka. There, and sometimes using kayaks, we would stalk and shoot imaginary Rhinos, Crocodiles and the like. Familiarity with such big game almost got me eaten by a real Salt water crocodile in the Northern territories in 2010. Fortunately for me, he didn’t take the bait.
I wasn’t really a city kid, but I was never very good at telling when someone was having a laugh. Sometimes I was told Granddad was joking when he most probably wasn’t or vice versa. I settled arguments with my fists, but there were strong country lads bigger than me, and fortunately I had a cousin who toughened me up. Altogether, I think he might have done more damage than good as he certainly didn’t know much about hunting when he started to teach me. I saw some things I would rather forget, and would probably stop animal activists ever reading this book, but we both became proficient, and I even started to brag as my eyesight was much better than his, which as a pilot is something I am eternally grateful for! My step dad was a marvel of practical intelligence and strong as an ox. There is nothing he cannot do in the traditional trades as an accomplished builder and farmer, he could also weld, and taught me in his own way. He taught me to ride a push bike and drive a three wheeler motorbike. He allowed me to rebuild a Yamaha AG100 when I got a little older, and somehow I survived my childhood. I think, deep down, I have always been good at managing risk! These days, his hard work and some of my mother’s money from the divorce has been invested in Dairying in such a way as to pay for a first rate education, Commercial Pilot license and professional dive qualifications. It bought me my first car (and some of my subsequent vehicles) and helped me out of numerous financial difficulties as I crashed them, wrote software and endeavoured to make it big with my software and later e commerce and sharing economy initiatives. It pains me greatly that for twenty four years I did not fully realise the degree by which these hard working farming families and intelligent young men and woman were being exploited by greedy corporate thugs. It never got nasty, but when the stakes are high, sometimes I wish I was just a little bit wealthier. Ours is a small farm by New Zealand standards in 2015. Just two hundred cows. Too many farms went bust in the 80s and for fifteen years since 2000 rural New Zealand has been neglected in favour of failed policies to revolutionise the sector. These days, in order to be neither evil nor superfluous, farm automation and addressing wealth inequality via a Universal Basic Income based on our government owned renewable energy is a must. The welfare state was built by community boards and amalgamated into local government. It is not central governments job, or right to dismantle it. I recommend reading “Inheriting the Dream” by Carol Dawber if you want to better understand this co-operative farming background and my hopes for its future.
Chapter five:
There was good religious instruction at secondary school, well before I won an Academic Scholarship to Christ’s College and Royal Society placings at International Space Camp and the Australian International Space School in 1995. This was the result of good Christian folk, not like the bigots that are too apparent these days. I continued to study the martial arts first under Mike Ryan “HohTa Karate”, and later, at the University of Canterbury at 17, Uchuuzen Kempo and Earles Academy Wing Chun Kuen. Jason Kotara was teaching in Golden Bay. I found the sitting meditations in Japanese arts and the standing moving meditations in the Chinese art of Wing Chun not dissimilar to the Yoga of India, and particularly insights by Osho in “Psychology of the Esoteric”, a book I rank of importance just after the Christian bible. I fiercely defend creation to this day, and in my own club I have Jews, Christians and Muslims peaceably training together and thus there is hope for the world. I would describe myself as a Jewish Christian Muslim Buddhist Sufi… but Christian “one who saves” shall suffice. I am incredibly fortunate that despite having a Commodore 64 at age 4, my [three] parents invested in an Amiga 2000 for me after we moved to Golden Bay. Soon I had converted all the tables in the D&D Basic, Expert, Masters, Campaign, and Immortals sets into AA&C’s D&D utilities using Amiga Basic… and became quite proficient at Tetris, Lemmings, Blue Max, Carrier Command and FA/18 interceptor- most importantly, better than my friends! I regularly enjoyed pen and paper D&D and became quite the middle distance runner, ranked 5th in the South Island 800m and regularly beat every other track runner in my school for every event over 100m when I left for Christ’s College. Swim lessons had scarred me for a long time, and if I were to delve into previous lives, I am certain drowning has happened to me before! My solution was to develop the ability to hold my breath, 4 minutes in the Alpa Mare hot springs Bavaria in 2002, and I became a regional sport climbing champion as a result of spending my holidays at Payne’s Ford and weekends at an indoor wall in 1996. Similarly, I became an accomplished field hockey player, and made a national area schools team. I owe all of this to my Christian faith and in no small part to the message delivered at the Youth for Christ “Banana Republic” Summer Camp in the Marlborough Sounds. Sometimes, a change of scene, and a change of company is all that is required to change your life… for the better. There was this huge flying fox that launched off a sea cliff and ended about 200m out to sea… terrifyingly awesome! Now if you are at all interested in joining my startup, take a look at @abbottmaverick!
Chapter six:
My “real” dad was dating a celebrity widow and I was flying internationally unaccompanied at age 9, bungee jumping at age 12, and generally enjoying being a kid. Expo ’88 in Brisbane I saw my first robot with two way voice and video and the “5D” foot rot flats theatre in the New Zealand pavilion. I can’t believe how incompetent people have been in getting us from Expo ’88 to flying cars. I mean, didn’t “Back to the Future” teach us anything?
Chapter seven:
From smoking reeds in the creek as a kid, to partying like a frathouse legend in RealGenius. If you haven’t seen it, go watch it WWVKIRJD.
Chapter eight:
NASA International Space Camp and the Australian International Space School. Not everyday someone from Collingwood Area School is selected by the Royal Society to attend these prestigious events, and on returning obtains a scholarship to Christ’s College Christchurch and the Marshall Aerospace Aviators Award…
Chapter nine:
A few brawls later and I am happily dating the most beautiful girl in the World, Ms Caroline Rhoades… and into College House at the University of Canterbury where I will meet the red haired Timothy (Tim) Lewellynn and in a few short years have him convinced to start ITExperienced.co.nz Ltd with me to capitalise on the Linux server and consulting market. IBM and Amazon push ahead while I generate secure certificates, write a secure software registration system using block chain, my own PKI and arithmetic encoders and friendship with Tim Bell makes me think Google ripped a lot of people off, make Kiwidisposals a success and end up working in Rosenheim for SZ Testsyteme AG. University years included everything you would expect. My wife to be Ms Francis Tree. First trips to Japan and Thailand, now a brown belt in Uchuuzen Kempo, I loved Japan and meeting my friend Rewi’s Japanese family. Food poisoning in Japan and trip to hospital dampens an otherwise awesome experience.
Chapter ten:
I’m a kung fu instructor and dating Silvia Gullielmetti. An amazing couple of years in Europe and then back to New Zealand to do my Commercial Pilot License, buy and fly a CJ6 Nanchang, the supercub, Pitt Special among my favourites. I finally earn the name NASA when I am selected by the RNZN for training as a GLXP Helicopter Pilot – Executive Branch and obtain a top secret security clearance. Ignoring senior officers gets me in a real pickle and I knock a man out for the first time using a vertical palm on their forehead. I get Glandular Fever during OOW training, and doubt the legitimacy of the war in Afghanistan and the official story on WMD’s in Iraq and even 9/11.
Chapter eleven:
Too much fun as a boy racer when I was young and I lose my license for three months due to speeding demerits. Work license issued. Trying to find work and end up at Bullant in Sydney Australia after a stint writing Student Pilot Travel Network (SPTN, a play on Switched Public Telephone Network) a mobile app for flight ride sharing using J2ME MIDP1.0, PHP and PostgreSQL. There I find mass surveillance creeping into the smartphone platform I am managing at Bullant Software, Relevance, complete the Windows Live for Mobile Certified Instant messaging client in 2007, as part of the MZN2.1.3 upgrade. I recommended Student Pilot Travel Network to Facebook and Duncan Davison, and have a myriad of other ideas such as Tamagotchi Warriors and iPhone saving privacy, but Relevance -> Android has its way to stay. Our company pitches to lonely planet, fails and the CEO changes also, leaving us with a female CEO, her advisor Duncan Davidson and a very snarky Indian who shall not be named. Apparently his wife put her hand in a blender. I know enough about equities, options and futures that listening to Batman and others makes it clear to me that mass surveillance was complicit in the 2008 financial crisis. I will be a billionaire, but I’m not… Uber is born instead, and privacy is stillborn with it along with profitable Unicorns such as Facebook, which has just decided mobile wasn’t such a bad idea after all, Viber, Whatsaap… This taught me if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product, respecting human rights doesn’t pay in the short term, and stealing is how the rich get richer. Protecting the love of my life, I move to Canada.
Chapter 12:
I’m seduced by the future ex-wife. It was fun while it lasted. My daughter is born at the same time as pods of dolphins including their new born only a couple of foot long playing and swimming at Pakawau Beach. A beautiful blonde helps me fight for the custody of my child, and I find my Bliss. The secret works, the force is real. Now is a good time to read Psychology of the Esoteric. I’m becoming a Jewish Christian Buddhist Hindu Sufi.
Drama. Lots of drama, none of it true. The pie throwing incident (it was a wrapper). Always blow on the pie. Flying those checks got Banks fired and me divorced. My ex’s boyfriend before me was a Russian drug dealer. Coincidence? I am not so certain. Not my circus, not my monkeys. Thank God for the Heavenly Angels. An Army, Navy, Airforce and Space Marines. Start listening to Benjamin Fulford. Christchurch, city of Cathedrals… on Cashel St, we wait… Is it possible? Is it plausible? I am growing strong with the Force. The Bush cartel falters as RealWorld heroes join the fray and we do our best to avoid further violence and address inequality. Unconditional Basic Income, energy and environmental accounting, the renewable energy credit and the like. So how exactly is New Zealand, a country the size of Japan with a population of just four million, and my many unicorns (or cockroaches which are startups that are hardier than unicorns, and actually exist) falling into other peoples hands? And why aren’t the pretty girls as plentiful as before (like a good wine, I have matured with age). KDC sells information for money… and as James Whitey Bulger said (who was on Vancouver Island), you can’t rat on a rat. Now El Chapo and James Whitey Bulger might just have some beef with KDC. Finally, the folks that caused the most trouble for me in Golden Bay would be Cam, Todd, a group of Lesbians at Onekaka, and the Stompe’s. Why not James Whitey Bulger, KDC and Kalanik, Trenchard and Halpern? Take a quick look at the youtube video “Grand Theft Uber”. The reason is I am about to sue Uber Technologies, or get a compensation payment of $200 million dollars. I wrote Student Pilot Travel Network a MIDP1.0 cellphone app between 2002-2006. I pitched it to Facebook app competition in 2007 before I was dismissed from Bullant Software in Sydney citing a conflict with an Indian colleague (not Vikram Kumar, that was a typo and to my knowledge never worked at Bullant Software), although my team and I successfully delivered MyZooNow2.1.3 this colleague had ignored my instructions and caused a major outage while I was on leave. The fact that I also shared the idea with a Venture Partners VC Duncan Davison, is no excuse for the grand larceny, threats, false accusations, violence and innuendo that occurred after I met Trenchard in Queenstown, New Zealand. As if retreating to the Snowden was not enough, it appears that the code written by myself and now assigned to RealWorld – “Reality Virtualised for the Real You” Limited via Itexperienced.co.nz Ltd was supposed to be about the open source community and a sharing economy. It was GPLd and yet, Uber has not released its source, and had no authority to develop this independent of me regardless who paid for it. Student Pilot Travel Network was designed to increase aviation safety, reduce costs of training, increase aircraft utilisation, and provide a sharing of aviation experiences amongst a club such as the Royal New Zealand Aeroclub. It could also be applied to other vehicles, but we are supposed to be living in the future right? I was doing my Commercial Pilot License and I saw the mobile as a perfect way to share the information necessary to cost-share of these flights, and merchandise through the portal.
Kalanik and Trenchard are dirty, dangerous men. From “blood, sweat and ramen” Kalanik now has a reputed net worth of $6billion dollars, and at least $200million of that is necessarily mine. I call blood, sweat and bullshit. He was struggling to make a go of Red Swoosh, a peer to peer file sharing software and accordingly, I am now making the connection between him and Kim Dotcom at MegaUpload. I sincerely believe, as Peter Thiel and others in the “Grand Theft Uber” video attest, that there is a slush fund for attacking those that remain deservedly unrewarded for their work outing Uber as a stolen product. As awareness grows, Uber will have no choice but to pay compensation. GPLd source for SPTN should have remained available at either Source Forge or Fresh meat, but there has been a concerted cover up as I have been approached from many different factions for my experience and ideas since. Both with regarding work as a ‘truther’, about Prism and Squeaky dolphin after working at Bullant Software and the Android scam, and more recently an ex Microsoft Research employee, BlipAR, and Fove on everything from my vision for RealWorld – “Reality Virtualised for the Real You” Limited and technical details of its business plans and the Eye Tracking Natural User Interface (ETNUI), Internet of Everything, drone and farm automation and surveillance, FinTech, robotics, and “Sharing is caring”, not unlike RealStew.
Cue Knightrider Music… DidaDidaDida
MORE TO COME FROM YEARS AS A BOGAN… MEDITATIONS FROM THEN TILL NOW…
RNZN…
OCCUPY WALL ST…
WIKILEAKS…
THE ‘KUNG FURY’ YEARS… Loon Copter, FOVE, Lobster, Snowden and Assange, Harre and KDC, and you.
FOR “AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI”
James Abbott (James MacHardy-Abbott) (@abbottmaverick)
The ideas GUY:
Triamp 1998 [Ipod], SPTN 2003 [Uber], HotOrNotMobile 2005 [Tinder], ETNUI 2013 [Fove], IOE 2014 [BlipAR], MagicLeap core technologies, the not sO FaiLed pilotfever at Internet Mana, ParticapatoryDemocracyMobile 2008-2013 [Loomio / various], TamagotchiWarriorsMobile, ChatWikiMobile 2007 [PokemonMaster, Google Wave], Twitter… yeah That Twitter, the guys who gave Ad busters the idea of Occupy Wall Street and a Bodhidharma who achieved and learnt a lot from
His parents
The Bible
Osho – “Psychology of the esoteric”
The Beverly Hill billies
President Lee
Wu Wei and Vin
Plants are more conscious than rocks, animals are more conscious than plants, human beings have the capacity to reach to God consciousness.
I come from a land down under.
Hunger is a horrible thing among mankind, it can drive them to eat one another…
Focused on UBI as a parallel domestic currency based on a renewable energy credit. Social credit, energy accounting, environmental economics, for the 21st century, a Star Trek economy, and space ship earth.
Consciousness and the Overview Effect 