War is a Lie! (David Swanson in L.A. May 10)

Pfc. Sandoval and CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; David Swanson (warisalie.org)

We are the future right now. Spanish-speaking girl yearns for peace: Guerra No ("No War")

David Swanson speaks in L.A. May 10th on

We are working to end ALL WAR with WorldBeyondWar.org. Progressive Pacifica L.A. radio host Lila Garrett (Connect the Dots) will introduce David Swanson, who is the host of "Talk Nation Radio." He helped plan the nonviolent occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington D.C. in 2011, having worked as a reporter and press secretary for the 2004 presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich.

• Kucinich will be in on the other side of town at the same time at rival UCLA's campus for the United We Stand Festival, a rap/hip-hop college concert with Wu-Tang Clan, Public Enemy, Luminaries, Immortal Technique, Jill Stein, and Marianne Williamson...

He was also communications coordinator for the targeted and wrongly tainted ACORN and Secretary of Peace in the Green Shadow Cabinet. Swanson's books include War No More: The Case for Abolition, War Is A Lie, When the World Outlawed War, and The Military Industrial Complex at 50 (all of which he will be signing). Find his blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsaCrime.org and WarIsaLie.org. More

• Sat., May 10, 2014, 12:00-2:30 pm
• United University Church
• 817 W. 34th St., L.A., CA, 90089
• FREE, open to all, wheelchair accessible
• Contact: Kathleen (310) 339-1770, sign-up
• Exposition Light Rail: Jefferson/USC Station

Parking in the UUC lot and Lot M. Access to UUC parking is through Gate 5, McClintock/Jefferson entrance to USC. Get a parking permit at Gate 5 kiosk. Tell them you are going to the church. Turn left onto 34th St. and then next left onto Watt Way. Turn right into Lot M, and go through Lot M to UUC Lot.

Sponsored by California Peace Alliance, Code Pink, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, KPFK, Military Families Speak Out, MLK Coalition LA, Office of the Americas, Peace Center of United University Church, Progressive Democrats of Santa Monica Mountains, Project Great Futures, Topanga Peace Alliance, United Teachers of Los Angeles Human Rights Committee, and Veterans For Peace.

"Stop the Wars!" on other nations and the working people in the US (Occupy Oakland)

"Kill Anything That Moves!" (video)

Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Mitch Jeserich (KPFA.org, 01-30-14), The Tet Offensive

(Movieclips) A scene from "Platoon" showing how Christian American soldiers treated innocent Buddhist civilians in a war that had nothing to do with religion and everything to do with money and our peculiar form of war-profiteering capitalism. See you in hell, Charlie.

We are currently doing the exact same thing to Afghans in Afghanistan without ever wondering who gets us into these apparently pointless wars (which are not pointless but based on lies that fall apart under scrutiny). "Truth is the first casualty of war." And "those who forget history are condemned to repeat it" as new White House and Pentagon officials seek more adventures in genocide, slavery, and atrocities in our and/or our God's name.

 

Not the Buddha but the monk and Bodhisattva Hotei (Budai), Vietnam

 

LISTEN: Letters and Politics - Jan. 30, 2014 at 10:00 am

The historical Shakyamuni Buddha (WQ)

Journalist Nick Turse, author of Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam (nickturse.com), talks about our previous adventure in American empire -- the U.S. War on Vietnam (and Laos and Cambodia). That was when we began to explain our fear-based massacres with koans like, "We had to burn the village to save the village." 

In the second 30 minutes of the show, Jane Gleeson-White talks about how accounting, bookkeeping, and high finance make everything possible -- including saving the world -- based on historical research from her fascinating book, Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Created Modern Finance. (download)

The Fifth Precept: to abstain from drugs (sutra)

Amber Larson, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly translation based on "The Five Precepts" (pañca-sila), AccessToInsight.org (AN 8.39)

The Buddhist Wheel of the Liberating Dharma (kadampa.org)

  

Buddha mudra, Thailand (Ponz666/flickr)

There are five basic training rules observed by all practicing lay Buddhists.

 

The precepts are often recollected after going for guidance to the Three Jewels: Buddha (the Enlightened), Dharma (Teachings that lead to enlightenment), and (noble community called the) Sangha (those who have successfully followed the Buddha and Dharma to the ultimate goal of enlightenment).  

Five Precepts

1. I undertake the precept to refrain from destroying living creatures.

2. I undertake the precept to refrain from taking what is not given.

3. I undertake the precept to refrain from sexual misconduct.

4. I undertake the precept to refrain from false speech.

5. I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicants which lead to carelessness.

 

Five Faultless Gifts

I will enjoy peace of mind and freedom.

"There are five great gifts -- original, ancient, traditional, long standing, unadulterated from the beginning -- that are not to be faulted now, that are never to be faulted, that are upheld by wise spiritual recluses and Brahmin priests. What are they?
 
"A disciple of the noble ones, abandoning the taking of life, abstains from taking life. In doing so, one gives to limitless numbers of beings freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression. In giving freedom to limitless numbers of beings, one gains a share of limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the first gift...
 
"Furthermore, abandoning taking what is not given (stealing), a disciple of the noble ones abstains from taking what is not given....
 
"Furthermore, abandoning sexual misconduct, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from sexual misconduct....
 
"Furthermore, abandoning false speech, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from false speech....
 

Careless in Colarado (Brennan Linsley/AP)

"Furthermore, abandoning the use of intoxicants, a disciple of the noble ones abstains from taking intoxicants. In doing so, one gives to limitless numbers of beings freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, freedom from oppression. In giving freedom one gains a share in limitless freedom from danger, freedom from animosity, and freedom from oppression. This is the fifth great gift -- original, ancient, traditional, long standing, unadulterated from the beginning -- that is not to be faulted now, that is never to be faulted, that is upheld by wise spiritual recluses and Brahmin priests."

Radical Therapy:

Buddhist Precepts in the Modern World

Prof. Lily de Silva (Buddhist Publication Society)

The Buddha rises above all obstalces (Buddhisam)

The Five Precepts are the basic Buddhist code of virtue, undertaken daily by lay Buddhists along with Going for Guidance to the Three Gems. Virtue is regarded as the indispensable foundation of a life in line with the Dharma.
 
The Five Precepts consist of five training rules of abstinence: (1) from killing, (2) from stealing, (3) from sexual misconduct, (4) from false speech, and (5) from intoxicants.
 
The Five Precepts are designed to [give freedom from remorse as they] discipline and purify the three avenues of human action -- body, speech, and mind.

The Buddha rediscovered the Path then taught it.

Abstaining from killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct disciplines bodily action. Abstaining from false speech disciplines verbal action. ("False" speech is not a nice way of saying not lying; it refers to abstaining from perjury, slander, harsh/abusive speech, and frivolous talk).
 
The dual discipline of body and speech has a healthy effect on the purity of mind, although complete mental purity can only be brought about by "bringing it into being" (bhavana, mental culture, cultivation, self-development, or meditation).
 
The fifth precept -- abstaining from using intoxicants -- attempts to safeguard the mental faculty from degenerating through toxicity or a bad habit. A person under the influence has little control over oneself. So one is easily tempted to carelessly transgress the four other precepts as well. More

The ancient Five Precepts, Lumbini, Nepal (tripadvisor.com)