“The believer will open his mind to the truth on condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes.
Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be.
Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown.
Belief clings, but faith lets go. In this sense of the word, faith is the essential virtue of science,
and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception,” fr. “The Wisdom Of Insecurity.”
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes.
Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
We try to pretend, you see, that the external world exists altogether independently of us.
We identify in our experience a differentiation between what we do and what happens to us.
The relationship of self to other is the complete realization that loving yourself is impossible
without loving everything defined as other than yourself.
Underneath the superficial self, which pays attention to this and that, there is another self more really us than I.
You and I are all as much continuous with the physical universe as a wave is continuous with the ocean.
The trouble is, that we have one-sided minds, and we notice the wave of life when it is at its peak or crest.
And the more you become aware of the unknown self – if you become aware of it -
the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that is.
I find that the sensation of myself as an ego inside a bag of skin is really a hallucination.
Well actually, when you look out there and see all these people and things sitting around,
that’s how it feels inside your head.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.
The Bodhisattva saves all beings, not by preaching sermons to them, but by showing them that they are delivered,
they are liberated, by the act of not being able to stop changing.
So then, in Buddhism, change is emphasized.
You must understand as one of the fundamental points of Buddhism, the idea of the world as being in flux.
The reason we have poverty is that we have no imagination.
There are a great many people accumulating what they think is vast wealth, but it’s only money…
they don’t know how to enjoy it, because they have no imagination.
The reason we want to go on and on is because we live in an impoverished present.
“The more we try to catch hold of the present moment the more elusive it
becomes. It is like trying to clutch water in ones hands. The harder we
grip, the more it slips through our fingers.”
Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize
that they are one and the same process as the universe.
In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America.
And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way.
What I think we could aim for in the way of human civilization and culture would be a system
in which we are all highly aware of our existing interconnection and unity with the whole domain of nature,
and therefore do not have to go to all sorts of wild extremes to find that union.
A person who is fanatic in matters of religion,
and clings to certain ideas about the nature of God and the universe,
becomes a person who has no faith at all.
To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.
When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown.
Instead you relax, and float.
the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.
Faith is a state of openness or trust.
And the attitude of faith is the very opposite of clinging to belief, of holding on.
The religious idea of God cannot do full duty for the metaphysical infinity.
the point is that God is what nobody admits to being, and everybody really is.
nothing – the negative, the empty – is exceedingly powerful.
Buddhism has in it no idea of there being a moral law laid down by some kind of cosmic lawgiver.
Religion is not a department of life; it is something that enters into the whole of it.
My metaphysics, let me be perfectly frank with you, are that there the central self,
you can call it God, you can call it anything you like, and it’s all of us.
Buddhism is not saying that the Self, the great Atman, or whatnot,
it isn’t denying that the experience which corresponds to these words is realizable.
Omnipotence is not knowing how everything is done; it’s just doing it.
If you awaken from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other,
life implies death – or shall I say, death implies life – you can conceive yourself.
reality is only a Rorschach ink-blot, you know.
“The only Zen you’ll find on mountain tops is the Zen you bring up there with you.”
~ Krishna from The Bhagavad Gita:
It is better to strive in one’s own dharma than to succeed in the dharma of another.
Nothing is ever lost in following one’s own dharma. But competition in another’s dharma breeds fear and insecurity.
He alone sees truly who sees the Lord the same in every creature…seeing the same Lord everywhere,
he does not harm himself or others.
As long as you have attachment to the body and attachment to objects, fear and suffering will be with you.
Therefore, Krishna told Arjuna to develop his discrimination and rid himself of body consciousness.
He told him that once he was free of body consciousness he would be able to develop integral vision.
The awakened sages call a person wise when all his undertakings are free from anxiety about results.
Abandon all attachment to the results of action and attain supreme peace.
~ J.C. :
I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.
–
If we follow these principles, there is now to be found a short path available to technical mastery of mortality and mortal sufferings for earthlings, a reunification with our environs.
The principles have a simple base:
Do not confuse the map with reality – mind is a powerful map, but it is just a map.
Treat Others as though they were self, for we are all waves in one ocean.
Do not believe, see.
Do not hope, have faith in ourselves and The Allness.
Witnesses say Blackwater is murdering former employees who intend to testify http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MR4JjKhjigU
Countdown Aug 4 – Blackwater Murdering Innocent Iraqis for Sport – 6:05 Save
Watch ‘How It All Ends’ – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg
It’s about making big decisions into simple ones; not about whether the globe is warming,
much less why, it’s about doing nothing, or not.
An excellent science teacher avoids all the science to look at the simplest logic.
It hurts deep, life is ever cheaper than cheap; good thing info is even cheaper! media to the people, media to the people! right on!
I thought we would be hearing from our vets in the streets, today’s boys are more savy, they have it on video, and they know how to share it:
New Homegrown Documentaries Industry Makes Timely Agitprop
These films are following a new marketing paradigm for civically focused documentaries.
Eshewing the profits that go with major markets inclined to shut out content like this anyway, they aim for direct sales motivated by hosting free screenings.
As a marketing strategy this is more concerned with getting out the word than it is effective at turning a profit.
In one of the following clips (Preview of Interview with Robert Greenwald 2:44; of ‘High Price of Low Prices’), Robert Greenwald speaks to the appeal
that being invited to see it by co-workers, freinds, and family has for people who would not want to help fund the film.An exciting new documentary ‘the War Tapes’,made of footage by the troops on the ground, is playing this coming week,
fri oct 6th, thru thurs. 12th, at Times Cinema, at 5906 W Vliet St, Milwaukee, WI., at 7 & 9:00pm, with a 3pm matinee on sunday.
You can see the trailer at thewartapes.com/trailer, and look up screenings atthewartapes.com/screenings;
though it is not nearly as well developed, or populated, as the list for the following one, which is sure to propagate much better online.
Recently released, and aimed effectively at small showings by citizens, is Robert Greenwald’s ‘Iraq for Sale’, Trailers,
hook up with locals who will show it to you at iraqforsale.org/screenings.php.
Go meet new people, or, better yet, buy the DVD (‘Iraq for Sale’), and host a party (screenings.php), where you can meet freinds new and old.
Another similar documentary telling the soldiers’ tale now showing locally is The Ground Truth,
which is also not quite as booked online as Robert Greenwald funded Brave New films’ ‘Iraq for Sale’.
As I have yet to see any of these three, I cannot yet speak to whether the better movie was made by money, or vets, but my opinion is not one that matters.
The Ground Truth screenings can be found here, enter your zip code and radius, or see recent Milwaukee listings here.
There’s more! a film that combines the others’ themes, by focussing on the civilian contractor “vets” perspective. ‘Shadow Company’, the (2:50) Trailer for which is quite promising.
Also, “Soldiers Speak Out” (Trailer 4:51), which appears to have quite the online activist community behind them.
So, we have four videos from those who have fought there, and two on profiteering, one of which is both.
Five fine films due largely to the efforts of those who served.
There is not much that is more wrong with the world than what you will learn about
from this video; i usually try to focus on the up side, on what is good,
all the things that can be done to make things right, on prescriptive info about what to do,
but it is vitally important you not let Monsanto do to you and yours.
It is vitally important to know what we must stop, especially the wholesale poisoning of us,
our food, and the Earth .
i’ve combed youtube.com for info on our war on the mideast.
i thought i’d start with the one’s that brought me there.
damn! that reminds me, i just missed the daily show again again,
anyway, here are the humorous ones first to soften you up.
in the next few days i will post some very graphic war vid links,
and some very informational links on Palestine’s water and such to follow after that.
if you hate the Daily show, you may want to skip a bit.
you gotta watch a short ad first, but i think it’s worth it, press the smaller play button. huffingtonpost / stop-this-shit this is a really great folk song on the recent G8 summit
this is a list of Lebanese targets hit in the first week of
“restricted pinpoint attacks” to ‘defend’ Israel from Hezbollah
all three runways at airport,
airport fuel tanks
road to the airport,
roads,
hwy linking Beruit and Damascus,
bridges, 46
tunnels,
lighthouse,
port facilities,
electrical pylons,
power plant fuel tanks,
generators,
water mains,
pumping stations
fuel depots,
gas stations,
houses,
milk factory,
ambulances,
an ambulance caravan from Syria,
procter and gamble warehouse,
countless apartment buildings,
shops,
stalls,
way disproportionate number of cars,
empty seafront restaurant,
mobile television relay stations,
comm networks,
cellphone towers,
glass factory,
U.N. peacekeepers’ main headquarters in the south,
Christian suburb on the eastern side of Beirut,
truck-mounted water well drill,
the office of PLO foriegn minister,
barracks of Lebanese logistics unit
(some members of which had just shown Robert Fisk
what they thought was a fallen piece of wing and
burning fuel from an f-16; they are now dead),
another Lebanese barracks,
multiple army bases,
schools
Grain Silos
is thier aim amazingly bad, or thier lies?
and then there’s the blockade
Israeli Air Force General Ido Nehushtan says, “The targets chosen are connected either directly or indirectly with terrorism,”
Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres, “no civilian life will be hit, that no civilian infrastructure will be destroyed.” “Israel didn’t start the war. Israel didn’t attack anybody.”
“There has also been widespread destruction of public infrastructure.”
International Committee of the Red Cross
“Since the start of the month, Israeli forces have killed nearly 50 Palestinians, the majority of them being innocent civilians. In May, the killing of more than 40 Palestinians by Israeli forces was scarcely reported in the US media. The recent artillery barrage on Gaza left many children under the age of ten dead. The number of Palestinian children killed in the last three weeks by Israeli forces is equal to the number of Israeli children killed by Palestinian groups over the past two years.”
July 04, 2006, http://poeticremi.blogspot.com/
Found a pic of men in Beirut watching Hizbullah leader
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, while the Isrealis claim to think
the explosions behind are hitting him
(they did nab some apartments and houses though).
btw, the CIA has closed the book on Osama Bin Laudin.
h u b r i s ZIONAZIS
Israel still holds nearly 10,000 abducted Palestinians, including many members of the Palestinian government. Ali Abuminah, co-founder of ElectronicIntifada.net, Israel explicitly introduced the tactic of hostage taking for the purpose of prisoners exchangesin the early 90s. Today, Israel holds many Lebanese prisoners and occupies the Shebaa Farms. When did Israel every respect the sovereignty of any of its neighbors. Israel occupies southwest Syria. There are 30,000 Israeli settlers living in southwest Syria cultivating wine and enjoying the Golan Heights and claiming God gave it to them. Israel is establishing new settlements everyday throughout the Occupied Territories. Israel has been violating the airspace and territorial waters of Lebanon continuously and consistently ever since it was forced to withdraw its forces and its collaborator army, the South Lebanon army, in May 2000.
just so’s y’all can lump me in whatever box of ideas you need me to fit in:
besides being a dedicated and active Green Party activist,
though far to lazy and forgetful for my ‘leadership’ positions;
i also think the following are quite likely:
war always sucks,
but virtual war is rocking good fun,
when you get to take a break and live now and then
high levels of US ‘defense’ and ‘administration’ were involved,
at the very least, in not preventing 911,
certain individuals more so than bureacraticity can explain
we have passed peak oil, deal with it
“burning petroleum for fuel is like burning money for heat” ?Mendeleev
Hugo Chavez is the best single being to happen to the Americas since Simon Bolivar
in this stead he, like Bolivar, is more than a man, he embodies
the progressive compromise with capital, and military hierarchy, but just barely, movement
Anarkik being is all about organization, consensus, and democracy
mob rule is man with big stick rule, chaos does not organize
anarks rule selves collective, organize is only way to do so leaderless
if you are not an anark,
consider it the next time your movement is beheaded
by assasination, or co-opted by excess capital accumulation
it happens every time it matters
the reductionist, determinist, absolutest, inhuman assumptions of the culture of ownership,
esp. as it pertains to communal industrial capital
and it’s control by very few for very selfish prosaic and combative reasons,
has no real human rationale, nor has it ever fit the needs or realities of the majority of humans,
much less other fellow inhabitants of earth
way too much collateral damage occurs every day in Iraq,
our school budgets, our hearts, our minds, our liberties, and our relations,
colatteral human damage from the war is just about everywhere touched by the dollar or english speakers
the most important capital can not be owned,
human imagination is a wage,
it must be earned hourly, and must be fed daily
whatch this space, this is a short list now,
but i have a long list of additions already in mind
A Few Thoughts on the Coup in Honduras – Jeremy Scahill Junne 29, 2009 “Rebel Reports” –
There is a lot of great analysis circulating on the military coup against Manuel Zelaya in Honduras.
I do not see a need to re-invent the wheel. (See hereherehere and here). However, a few key things
jump out at me. First, we know that the coup was led by Gen. Romeo Vasquez, a graduate of the
US Army School of the Americas. As we know very well from history, these “graduates” maintain ties to
the US military as they climb the military career ladders in their respective countries.
That is a major reason why the US trains these individuals.
Secondly, the US has a fairly significant military presence in Honduras.
Joint Task Force-Bravo is located at Soto Cano Air Base, Honduras.
The base is home to some 550 US military personnel and more than 650 US and Honduran civilians:
They work in six different areas including the Joint Staff, Air Force Forces (612th Air Base Squadron),
Army Forces, Joint Security Forces and the Medical Element. 1st Battalion, 228th Aviation Regiment,
a US Army South asset, is a tenant unit also based at Soto Cano.
The J-Staff provides command and control for JTF-B.
The New York Times reports that “The unit focuses on training Honduran military forces, counternarcotics
operations, search and rescue, and disaster relief missions throughout Central America.”
Significantly, according to GlobalSecurity, “Soto Cano is a Honduran military installation and home of the Honduran Air Force.”
This connection to the Air Force is particularly significant given this report in NarcoNews:
The head of the Air Force, Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo, studied in the School of the Americas in 1996.
The Air Force has been a central protagonist in the Honduran crisis.
When the military refused to distribute the ballot boxes for the opinion poll, the ballot boxes were stored
on an Air Force base until citizens accompanied by Zelaya rescued them.
Zelaya reports that after soldiers kidnapped him, they took him to an Air Force base,
where he was put on a plane and sent to Costa Rica.
It is impossible to imagine that the US was not aware that the coup was in the works.
In fact, this was basically confirmed by The New York Times in Monday’s paper:
As the crisis escalated, American officials began in the last few days to talk with Honduran government
and military officials in an effort to head off a possible coup. A senior administration official,
who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the military broke off those discussions on Sunday.
While the US has issued heavily-qualified statements critical of the coup
—in the aftermath of the events in Honduras—the US could have flexed its tremendous economic muscle
before the coup and told the military coup plotters to stand down.
The US ties to the Honduran military and political establishment run far too deep for all of this to have gone
down without at least tacit support or the turning of a blind eye by some US political or military official(s).
Here are some facts to consider: the US is the top trading partner for Honduras.
The coup plotters/supporters in the Honduran Congress are supporters of the “free trade agreements”
Washington has imposed on the region.
The coup leaders view their actions, in part, as a rejection of Hugo Chavez’s influence in Honduras and with
Zelaya and an embrace of the United States and Washington’s “vision” for the region. Obama and the
US military could likely have halted this coup with a simple series of phone calls.
For an interesting take on all of this, make sure to check out Nikolas Kozloff’s piece on Counterpunch, where he writes:
In November, Zelaya hailed Obama’s election in the U.S. as “a hope for the world,” but just two months
later tensions began to emerge. In an audacious letter sent personally to Obama, Zelaya accused the
U.S. of “interventionism” and called on the new administration in Washington to respect the principle
of non-interference in the political affairs of other nations.
Here are some independent news sources on this story: School of the Americas Watch NarcoNews
Eva Golinger’s Postcards from the Revolution
ALBA representatives reaffirm support to Hondura`s Legitimate Government http://mathaba.net/news/?x=620928
(the Bolivarian Alliance of the Peoples of Our America)
Much has been going on in Honduras this month leading up to this,
from a recent coup attempt (ablove), to an Earthquake, an OAS meeting,
and two important futball games.
“bottom line? Democrats are the new republicans”
“we don’t have a left and a right party in this country anymore,
we have a center right party and a crazy party.
And over the last thirty odd years,
Democrats have moved to the right,
and the right has moved into a mental hospital.”
“look folks, i like Obama too, I’m just saying,
let’s not make it a religion. …
every time Obama tries to take on another on another progressive
ccause there’s a major political party standing in his way,
the Democrats.
People talk a lot about a third party in America,
we don’t need a third party, we need a first party.
You go to the polls and your choices are the guy who voted for the
first Wall Street bailout, or the guy who voted for the next ten.
This week we’re hearing that a public option for health care is unlikely,
because it doesn’t have the support of enough Democrats.
Even Ted Kennedy’s plan (Ted Kennedy yeah!),
leaves 37 million uninsured.
This is because we don’t have a left and a right party
in this country anymore,
we have a center right party and a crazy party.
And over the last thirty odd years,
Democrats have moved to the right,
and the right has moved into a mental hospital.
So, what we have is one perfectly good party for hedge fund managers,
credit card companies, banks, defense contractors, big agriculture,
and the pharmaceutical lobby, that’s the Democrats,
and they sit across the aisle from a small group of religious fanatics,
flat earthers, and Civil War reenacters,
who mostly communicate by AM radio
and call themselves the Republicans.
And who actually worry that Obama is a Socialist.”
April 10, 2009
Ron Howard on Realtime with Bill Maher ; 4:28
“Look, if you’re gonna make an endorsement like that,
you know, start, start by humiliating your self, a and a um,
and then be as modest about it as possible.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CgbvIasKUA&feature=related
October 13, 2007
Naomi Klein’s ”Shock Doctrine” on Maher; from Amsterdam ; 5:39
“now we all know that it’s Comunism is when the government
takes over private business, but,
when Corporations take over the government
that is what has been defined as Facism.
Do you think that’s where we’re at?
“Yeah, or Corporatism …
you can call it crony capitalism or corporatism,
but it’s certianly not the free market” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHMuiJwM23M&feature=related