The Occupy Ithaca web site has been rather tranquil. Most of the postings on the site have been about events in the Occupation Movement elsewhere. The only recent information from Ithaca has come in the form of announcements of General Assembly meetings – there was one a couple of hours ago, but there’s no word of any remarkable outcome from the meeting.

When I stopped by Occupy Ithaca this morning, everyone there was asleep. Yet, one protest sign propped up against a park bench there promised “consciousness” if I should join the demonstration. Another sign announced that the Occupy Ithaca protest site was “liberated territory”.

The idea of liberated consciousness made me think of the occupation protest over two thousand years ago by Siddhartha Guatama, who refused to move from under a pipal tree even when the armies of the demon Mara marched against him. To overcome the might of these armies, the Buddha merely touched the ground beneath him, the territory his source of witness to the insight of his vigil.

Is that what the Occupy Ithaca protest has in mind with its low-key vigil, or are the Occupy Ithaca demonstrators waiting for King Ulysses to finally come back home, and rid the house of Ithaca of usurping squatters?