History's done. Time to repeat. (Fergistan)

Amber Larson, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly EDITORIAL

Rebirth of the deva Venus, Nascita di Venere, by Boticelli (scentsciences)

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What life was like...rebirth comes again.

Isn't it strange how things repeat -- how they come around again almost exactly the same but just a little different? On the smallest, most intimate level, that of cittas and kalapas (ultimate mind and matter in Buddhist psychology and physics), what replaces the passing phase of a mind-moment or material-particle is ALMOST identical but not quite.

We would only ever know-and-see this with the light-of-wisdom, the nimitta-light, reviewing the mind door, as Theravada meditation master Pa Auk Sayadaw details. But we would have to build a firm foundation of concentration (jhana, meditative absorption) beneath a canopy of insight (vipassana) to ever come to know that directly. Review the mind-door by the heart and you, too, can see it after developing the requisite skill in meditation.

The seers of ancient pre-India (the Indus Valley Civilization) knew that time and events are cyclical, coming around again. The time that lapses between events, however, is measures in aeons (kalpas), akin to our geological-time of epochs and ages, Jurassic, Neolithic.. But within each grand cycle of time, each Great Aeon, there are smaller cycles looping around sooner.
 
Karma, or what we as Americans like to refer to as "What comes around goes around," can take a LONG time. Actions and their pleasant and unpleasant consequences can be separated by so much time that it becomes easy to believe that no results are ever coming. The results are always plural when they come, so to say "action with an equal and opposite reaction" is very misleading, as if those who use the Newtonian expression were foolishly trying to be all "scientifical."

Cycles upon senseless cycles

Buddhism is more immediate than science, more open to personal investigation and more convincing to those who know-and-see directly with no one as their authority above personal experience. The Buddha, the Dharma, and the Noble Sangha lead us to freedom from having to rely on any authority for what is true or not true. When one knows-and-sees, there is no question about it. Until we reach the state beyond-training, that of an asekha, we indeed need guides, and there are none better than these three precious gems.

"Hands up, don't shoot!" - Don't move! Let's see some ID, boy! (Josh P/pactenboy/twitter)

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Welcome to Fergistan

Just as it is on that rarefied level so, too, on our human plane: State-sponsored militant terrorist P.M. Bibi Netanyahu has re-ordered his army to attack and kill civilians in the Gaza Strip under the pretext of rooting out Hamas fighters defending Palestinians against an unbearable Israeli/U.S. oppression and a strangling, not to mention illegal -- blockade and occupation. And the same excuses are still used in the mainstream media, never having been put to the test in the Hague, where such things should be adjudicated.
 

Fresh clashes in Fergistan as Nat'l Guard arrives to put down the restive natives. Thirty-one people were arrested overnight in violent oppression by police on mainly peaceful protesters. The unrest has continued since the Aug. 9 murder of teen Michael Brown by Ferguson police. (Jeff Roberson/AP/NPR)

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And thanks to weather modification and the consequent climate chaos it has caused, there are fires burning all over California. Yosemite has just gone up in flames. Kern County is burning. The Angeles National Forest is ablaze in Tecolote and Shoemaker above Glendora...

Our original mind is like the sky, no center and no limit, infinitely vast, with happiness as our natural state. It has become obscured by clouds, and we identify with them rather than the deep blue boundless sky. These clouds are thoughts and emotions. In Buddhism, meditation is a means of unclouding the mind; it is the antidote to suffering (Natasha C.).

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Police have murdered another black young man in St. Louis, Missouri. There are more corpses piling up overnight at the hands of Los Angeles police. The "police state" is related to the atrocities being carried out in Israel/Palestine. Israel is staging ground, the weapons dealer, the practical side of how to exterminate an indigenous minority with legal rights to the land. How would we steal the land from indigenous people unless we first put them on reservations then killed them off from every direction? (That's our Western model of empire).

When all seems hopeless, there's hope.

Dead bodies here, fires there, the whole world seems to be going up in flames, so what's the connection? They are connected in a way that cannot be easily understood. The environment reacts and responds to us in a way that can hardly be understood. Seers (rishis), shamans (like shramanas before them), and mystics report that we are connected -- there is no separation -- and what we regard as objective and subjective is not actually accurate. Peace can be generated somewhere by well intentioned meditators sitting somewhere else. It is not a placebo effect because, as in some rigorous prayer studies, the targets do not know the meditation or prayer is going on.

A permanent solution to a temporary problem?

Likewise, the world at large knows when nonpeace is going on, and it reacts. The reactions compound, and we have "natural disasters." How can they be "natural" if we are involved and influencing them? It is because WE are part of nature, not something merely observing it or living in it. We are every bit a part of the environment as what we see "out" there. The objective is subjective as animists would say if they were using such terms, and the subjective is objective to anyone looking at us in our environment. Think peace, practice peace, be peace.

Or sit back and enjoy the show. Did you see that soccer player gently back kick the ball into the net? Not that show (distraction), this one: Once the CIA and other agencies from the White House to the military-industrial complex decided to murder a president. It wasn't the first time they plotted to depose a leader in a very expedient way, but this was a popular young president beloved by most citizens who thought him quite innocent and good. The plans were made, the "lone assassin" patsy selected, and cover up/conspiracy set in motion...

Doctor, my life if full of fear and anxiety...

(Epidemic/"Hands of Ruby") "All hiding behind their own blinds/ Rifle shot from killing arm/ Motorcade with Johnson is riding behind/ Suspect captured after struggle/ Taken into custody/ What the hell is wrong with some? Ignorawcity!/ Double blast, you agree/ Pointing eyes, you agree/ Massive chaos in the air/See the man lifeless there!/ Take the time to lead this nation out of fear..." More

MLK and JFK and the plan was well underway, RFK and Malcolm may just be the beginning

U.S. bombing Buddhist Laos (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman, Nermeen Shaikh

Laotian Theravada Buddhist devotion, Luang Prabang, Laos (William Day/flickr.com)

 

Fifty years ago this month, the United States began raining down bombs on Laos [a landlocked Theravada Buddhist nation in Southeast Asia near Vietnam, China, Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia], in what would become the largest bombing campaign in history.

From June 1964 to March 1973, the United States dropped at least two million tons of bombs on the small, landlocked southeast Asian country. That is the equivalent of one planeload every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, for nine years -- more than was dropped on Germany and Japan during World War II.
 

40 years after secret U.S. war in Laos, millions of bomblets (seen here) keep killing

 
This part of the deadly legacy of the U.S. War on Vietnam lives on: In a sense the bombing continues today because of unexploded cluster bombs (scattering bomblets), which had about a 30 percent failure rate when they were thrown from American planes over large swaths of Laos.

Experts estimate that Laos today is littered with as many as 80 million "bombies" or bomblets -- baseball-sized bombs designed into cluster bombs to scatter on impact to kill long after the initial bombing.

Since the initial bombing stopped four decades ago, tens of thousands of people have been injured, maimed, and killed as a result. Democracy Now! is joined by Karen Coates and Jerry Redfern, co-authors of Eternal Harvest: The Legacy of American Bombs in Laos (eternalharvestthebook.com).
 

The full Democracy Now! episode, June 25, 2014

• The man who co-wrote MLK’s "Beyond Vietnam" speech 
• SPECIAL: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his own words 
• Oliver Stone on 50th anniversary of JFK assassination and the "Untold History of the United States"
• VIDEO: Jeremy Scahill and Noam Chomsky on secret U.S. "Dirty Wars" from Yemen to Pakistan to Laos

• IRAQ: Maliki calls unity gov’t calls a "Coup" against Iraq 
• U.S. flies spy planes over Iraq; Syria bombs Sunni targets
• U.S. talks Iraq crisis with NATO allies
• Republican Sen. Cochran defeats Tea Party challenger after appeal to black voters
• Rangel claims victory in New York primary
• Federal Court rules "No-Fly" List unconstitutional!
• Obama admin warns of deportation of thousands of kids
• Assange attorneys petition Sweden to drop arrest warrant
• Palestinian prisoners end mass hunger strike
• Witnesses: Militants kidnap dozens in Nigeria
• Connecticut removes transsexual teen from adult prison

"The Untold History of the U.S." (video)"

Pfc. Sandoval, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Oliver Stone, Showtime, RT.com

(Episode 3: "The Bomb") "The Untold History of the United States"

Narrated by Oliver Stone, this series of one-hour episodes features human events that at the time went un- or under- reported, yet they crucially shaped the United States' unique and complex history of, what Dr. Martin Luther King was to call, "The greatest purveyor of violence in the world," namely the United States. In a recent poll more than 60% of people worldwide view the USA as the greatest source of terrorism and violence. Might the CIA be responsible for this reputation, or are the Obama, Bush-Cheney, and Nixon administrations largely responsible for it?

(RT/MOX News) "I've always regarded the CIA as a 

criminal organization" - Oliver Stone

• Pacifica Free Speech Radio: Oliver Stone Pack (book, DVD)
  
• VIDEO: I think it's embarrassing" - WikiLeaks' Julian Assange responds to Obama's big NSA Reforms speech

Martin Luther King Jr. in his own words (video)

Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Amy Goodman, DemocracyNow.org

Historian on the March on Washington and the Kennedys’ aversion to MLK’s struggle

 

MLK Jr., born Michael in 1929, was assassinated at age 39 on April 4, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a Protestant minister, Ph.D., Nobel laureate, and cheated on his wife rather being the saint many attempt to portray him as. While he is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, Dr. King was also a fierce critic of military-industrial U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War as well as U.S. genocides in Laos and Cambodia. He also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Let us listen to his "Beyond Vietnam" speech, delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, "I Have Been to the Mountain Top," which he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before [the government] assassinated him.

 

Malcolm X Day 2015

(Daily Kos) Today (Jan. 20th), is the federal holiday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We now have an entire generation who has grown up in the United States with this holiday... But there has been a lot of racist resistance to it. There is a government sponsored Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, which mentions, "After a long struggle, legislation was signed in 1983 creating a federal holiday marking the birthday" though his actual birth date was Jan 15, 1929.

The METTA of Martin Luther King Jr. (video)

Jason Espada; Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly: MLK DAY!

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Christian minister, with his friend, fellow peace activist, and anti Vietnam War agitator, the Buddhist monk Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh

Remembering Rev. King and the March on Washington, D.C. (history.com)

 

There are parallels between Dr. King’s ideas and the Buddha's teachings on metta (universal loving kindness).

 

Both figures show us love as a method of personal and social transformation. There are a few places where they overlap and in some ways potentially complement one another.

Metta is the traditional step-by-step method of Buddhist loving-kindness practice. It begins with oneself, moves on to those who are closest to us [usually our spiritual teacher(s)], and aims to reach a magnitude that includes everyone. It is a universal or illimitable state, one of the "Divine Abidings" (Brahma Viharas), because eventually it includes all living beings in all directions without bias.

Trayvon Martin teaches us that it is not over.

By contrast, Dr. King drew on Christian sources to speak of love. The first parallel is his teaching on the different types of love. "There are three words for 'love' in the Greek version of the New Testament; one is the word 'eros,' a sort of esthetic, romantic love. Plato used to talk about it a great deal in his dialogues, the yearning of the soul for the realm of the divine. And there is and can always be something beautiful about eros, even in its expressions of romance. Some of the most beautiful love in all of the world has been expressed this way."

It is interesting that Rev. King, a Baptist minister, starts here. It is an expression of love we can all relate to, not one too high up in the clouds. Metta practice also begins with the feelings we have for those closest to us. But the Buddha points out, as does King, that there is more to love.

Dr. King in living color in D.C. (easternct.edu)

Metta teachings from the outset have us distinguishing between attachment and a purer (more altruistic) love between people. Basically, if we crave for something in return, if we are motivated by possessiveness, or if it is liable to turn into something else -- such as anger or hatred if it is unrequited -- then it is done with attachment (clinging, upadana) not with metta. 

We must be clear about this. King goes on to speak of another kind: "Then the Greek language talks about 'philia,' which is another word for love, and philia is a kind of intimate love between personal friends. This is the kind of love you have for those people [whom] you get along with well, and those whom you like on this level you love because you are loved."

  

MLK (meditationandspiritualgrowth.com)

This is also something we have all known in our lives. I recently came across a beautiful teaching on the most noble qualities of friendship in Fr. Wayne Teasdale's book, A Monk in the World. In it, he mentions the tradition of Latin Christianity, which "places the emphasis on friendship’s spiritual character, calling a friend in the monastic context acustos animi, or a guardian of one’s soul." 

Teasdale adds, "All friendship requires other centeredness," and this is "really knowing our friends’ hearts.

No more racism, sexism! (FEMEN)

It includes committed friendship’s usual intense affective power, but it also serves our friends’ ultimate well being." That metta practice moves from oneself, or those closest to us, to our friends, is intended to touch this vital quality of caring in us, to awaken and enhance it so we can share it with more and more people. There is refinement of our love, an elevating quality that we develop.

King concludes the passage: "Then the Greek language has another word for love, and that is the word 'agape.' Agape is more than romantic love, it is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive good will toward all [humans]. Agape is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return."

MLK, John F. Kennedy, and other prominent civil rights activists in black history

  

In the same way, metta aims to become mature love. In contrast to Christian methods, which have many wonderful features, the strength of the Buddhist tradition of metta is that it sets out a path of practice that shows us what step we can take next. This brings us to a second parallel teaching, one King called The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.

The peace activist diet (PETA)

"There are three dimensions...length, breadth, and height. Now the length of life as we shall use it here is the inward concern for one’s own welfare. In other words, it is that inward concern that causes one to push forward, to achieve [one's] own goals and ambitions.

The breadth of life as we shall use it here is the outward concern for the welfare of others. And the height of life is the upward reach for God. Now you [have] got to have all three of these to have a complete life.

"Now let’s turn for the moment to the length of life. I said that this is the dimension of life where we are concerned with developing our inner powers. In a sense this is the selfish dimension of life. There is such a thing as rational and healthy self-interest. Before you can love other selves adequately, you’ve got to love your own self properly.

MLK, Thay, Dr. Browne (digitalunion.osu.edu)

"And you know what loving yourself also means? It means that you’ve got to accept yourself."

 

It is great King started here. A lot of us have problems being kind to ourselves. And even if it is not essential as the very first step towards loving others, from a Buddhist point of view, it is still something we all need to learn to do if we are going to make progress in our metta practice.

 

United We Stand - with love/metta

One of the skillful means in metta is that we should start with whomever we find easiest and progress from there. After cultivating thoughts wishing others well, beginning with those most dear, for days or weeks or months, we have some metta to work with.

We then start to see how we, too, are worthy of respect and the kindness of others.

For some people this is a long process, but it is something we can all do. This is very encouraging. 

MLK made our collective dream a reality!

"Now the other thing about the length of life: after accepting ourselves and our tools, we must discover what we are called to do. And once we discover it we should set out to do it with all of the strength and all of the power that we have in our systems.

"Be the best of whatever you are. And when you do this, when you do this, you’ve mastered the length of life.

"Now don’t stop here, though. You know, a lot of people get no further in life than the length. They develop their inner powers; they do their jobs well. But do you know, they try to live as if nobody else lives in the world but themselves.

 

10 Things About MLK (history.com)

A lot of people never get beyond the first dimension of life. So I move on and say that it is necessary to add breadth to length. Now the breadth of life is the outward concern for the welfare of others, as I said. And a [one] has not begun to live until [one] can rise above the narrow confines of...individual concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

 

Let's laugh and end racism (sodahead.com)

Metta is just this -- starting with what is nearest to us and extending outwards, becoming more and more inclusive until it reaches what are called the Divine Abodes: universal love, compassion (the active side of love), appreciative joy (happiness in others' success and happiness), and equanimity (non-bias) -- all born of the strength of our dedication. (Let us return to equanimity or upekkha, further on as it is a quality so impressively demonstrated by King and others in the Civil Rights movement). More

"Letting Go" with Thich Nhat Hanh (video)

Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Source of Light Monastery; plumvillage.org (donate)

Thay ("teacher")

To preserve some of Ven. Thich Nhat Hanh's previous lectures, some of his older lectures are being uploaded by Source of Light Monastery as they become available.

Here Thay, as he is affectionately known, discusses what he calls the most important practice in Buddhist meditation -- the practice of letting go or "throwing away."

Wrong ideas, misperceptions, and false notions (moha, delusion, ignorance) are at the root of our suffering: They are the ground of all afflictions whatsoever. Cravings and aversions never stand without the support of ignorance.

 

In order for us to touch happiness in the here and now, we need to throw away the strong ideas and subtle notions that prevent us from learning and growing. 

Mahayana Buddhism's Diamond Sutra suggests four notions that should be thrown away: self, human being, living being, and life span. The main portion of this talk is dedicated to elaborating on these notions as well as our attachment to views, pairs of extremes, as well as "rules and rituals" we expect can lead to enlightenment. 

• Free Buddhist eBooks: sourceoflightmonastery.com

Thich Nhat Hanh on Oprah's OWN

Sitting with Thich Nhat Hanh (2013)

Yogi David Ibrahim (DivineYogaLA.com), CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly, time with Thay, Oct. 20, 2013

Thich Nhat Hanh (R) with peace activist and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when Christians and Buddhists worked together for peace, justice, and an end to racism.

  

Bell rings. "Breathing in, I feel tension; breathing out, I release."

​People are so busy today we do not live anymore. We suffer. But compassion (karuna, active efforts to help others out of friendliness, kindness, love) heals. It can even heal chronic inflammation in the body. 

 

Caretakers must listen to the suffering of many people. If they do not know how to nourish themselves -- to nurture, heal, create joy, and happiness for themselves and those around them -- then there is no source of nourishment to continue. One tires from being touched by other people's suffering, never regenerating their own. We need to produce the energy of compassion, which is an energy like light. We are like plants being energized, like suns brightening worlds. Every breath and every mindful step helps us produce it.

 

​ We all need moments of joy and contented happiness or we will not have enough material to feel compassion. And without nourishing, how can we heal? We may need to learn how to produce that energy daily or risk running out. Compassion is a life force. It is goodness. But we need to learn how to generate it daily to take care of ourselves and by extension others.

We run out of it because we are tired and draining without replenishing. Everyone experience suffering (dukkha, discontent, disappointment, lack of fulfillment, woe), anger, and despair. But most of us do not have time to take care of the pain. Do we have time for the pain? Apparently. We do not have time for self-care, which means we must have time for the pain. We feel it unpleasant to "waste" time caring for ourselves. What are we afraid of?

 

We are afraid of are own pain, that we will be overwhelmed by it. So we run from it, even in thought. We cannot block the pain, so we block the very thought of it. We will not "indulge" in self-care! If we eat, it might not be out of hunger but to stuff or stifle our pain, to cover it up. We have an inner loneliness. 

Reading magazines, gossiping, fascination with celebrity -- this is our entire civilization. We run and run from themselves. They (we) have no time to heal themselves or others. We must run. If we never learn or take the time to heal ourselves, how are we really helping others? Martyrdom, resentment, robotic behavior?

 

"How can I run?" That becomes the real question. What can I immerse myself in? Parenting? Gadgets? Volunteering? Drinking? TV? TV, the ultimate time dump.

American kids use electronics more than eight hours a day. Parents in the US are "busy," always busy, too busy to care about themselves or others. Home and work are falling apart, but workaholism is also a popular distraction. We are overworked, and nearly everyone is undercompensated. Where can we find refuge? Videogames? Weed? Weightwatchers?

We are not immune to toxic conversations -- news of neighbors and faraway strangers, news filled with despair. We take in and take in these toxins. Even an hour is too much, but it's not nearly enough. We fill our brains with toxins until they're overflowing. Suffering grows in us.

How do we handle it? In other words, how do we heal ourselves?

There is no one close to ask, as two people who suffer can hardly communicate. In anger, we block communication. "I can hardly bear to look at you; how am I to speak?!" So what time is there for family, for "us," for anything but me? But I will not even take time for that most precious person, the one I know best, the one I wake up with every single day...me.

But, but, but...

There is a popular belief that happiness is impossible without enough money or social recognition. So in our desire for happiness, we run after objects of our craving. We chase them, hunt them down, and claim we'll do anything to get them. Happiness is not possible. Who has time? We're too busy running, but this time chasing as we run.

We harm body and mind. When is there time to heal, to nurture? Maybe in the hospital, maybe when the body finally says, "No!" Dr. Gabor Mate warned about this well in advance, but what time did we have to listen?

We think money cures insecurity and fear. We live in fear of fear. We are even afraid of the problem itself, which soon becomes stress, the great debilitator and exterminator of happiness.

If only we could learn compassion to make energy! That would protect us far better than money!

The Buddha had a benefactor who was very generous and conscientious. He gave, he supported others (even the poorest, a practice after which he was given the name Anathapindika), he provided for strangers in need and friends. But he went bankrupt. His friends, and he had many, helped him rebuild his fortune. The Buddha helped teach business leaders. Why? We can be happy and successful here and now -- with compassion. We can learn to go home, here and now, learn happiness right here and right now, learn to live happily in the present moment. (There never is any other moment after all. As Thich Nhat Hanh's special watch says where we expect to find numbers to tell us the time, "Right Now").

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​ How to balance life and work? If we work until we are sick, we may end up using all our earning to make ourselves well again. We could have done it ourselves, but we like writing checks to Big Pharma and big medical institutions. We must. We do it enough.

Buddhism asks us how we walk from the parking lot to work, which may be say 300 feet (100 meters). We cannot take the car into the office or we surely would: we would drive up to desks or machinery and reach out of the window like we were reaching for extra fries and a sugar-loaded soda.

Do we walk quickly or take our time, living now, mindful of every step? We think and think, and our minds race when we could be focusing on our in breath and out breath, which are only ever happening right now. Come into the present moment. "Be here now" rather than later. Arrive in the here and now. The past is past and gone. The future is future and not here. All nourishment is in the now, the present moment, this moment. It does not pass. It is always now; look at the watch.

Why not live as if this were life rather than a dress rehearsal for life? What if this were life? Can you imagine how silly we would feel to have been putting it off as if life would be lived later, and later, and later, always in the future?

Our appointment with life is the here. It's right now.

 

Touch the wonder of life. What wonder? Walk like a buddha, with the bearing of a healer, with every step. We train ourselves to walk. Who else could train us? Others only advise. Only we can break the habit of running.

Only we can keep the present moment in mind without leaving it behind. Maybe our parents could? Maybe our bosses? Maybe our underlings? Maybe our spouse? Maybe our god, gods, angels, and idols?

Who will train us in the Dharma (the path to liberation)? A book, a teacher, a good friend (kalyana mitta) might advise, but we would have to walk the way. Walk. Don't run.

Walk. Every mindful step is healing. Every mindful step is nourishing...