Fools

The purpose of mindfulness in practice is focus. Without the practice of mindfulness, distractions rule the human experience. Distractions bleed concentration away. Goals are not achieved. Evolution is sabotaged.

The purpose of materialism and capitalism is the distraction of the consumer's mind at all times. Fools give themselves over to this distraction without resistance. And fools and their money are soon parted by those distractions. Without a stable income and resources, one cannot pursue personal evolution effectively. Fools become slaves of the corporations which distract them into buying their unnecessary goods and services.

At the top of the financial pyramid of capitalism, wealthy shareholders live off the distraction of those who occupy the wide base of the pyramid. The poor buy the baseball tickets, cars, clothes, vacations, toys, prepared meals which fund the lives at the top of the pyramid. Those in the high financial brackets lavish themselves with luxury to no purpose or benefit other than comfort. The rare wealthy person uses his wealth to seek personal evolution.

Being a fool or being a person of self-evolving practice is an ongoing choice in the capitalist world. This is a key choice point each moment of each day.

Saints

The Pope, an alleged former Hitler Youth member, has set the agenda for nuns and priests who were killed while supporting Fascism in Spain's Civil War to become saints. He has shunned the deaths of the priests and nuns who died fighting Francisco Franco. Aside from making poor Mother Theresa look bad in the company she will now keep, this Pope has done a wonderful thing for secular humanism. He has made the stupidity and political cynicism of Roman Catholicism in a modern world quite obvious.

Abandoning imaginary friends and the people who use them to control you is part of growing up. Growing up is necessary before you can embark on your responsible, mindful and compassionate personal evolution.

Denial

Heterosexuals freely discuss opinions about homosexuals in blunt and all-knowing terms. This occurs on the media and on the subway. Yet, frank discussion of heterosexuals is likely to get a homosexual beaten up. This is simple to explain. The heterosexual majority live in a cooperative, conforming denial of the problems inherent in heterosexual thinking.

The evidence of the problems caused by this denial is everywhere, if you are willing or able to step outside of it. What frightens heterosexuals into this defense (denial) most readily is the glaring 800-pound gorilla of overpopulation, which is at the root of all the current environmental and social problems facing the human species.

The fact that it is their sexuality which causes this problem seems incomprehensible to even the most intelligent heterosexuals. They become overwhelmed whenever the focus is placed on this basic human problem. They begin squabbling over birth control, abortion rights, adoption rights, cloning, as if they were able to deal with any of it with true, decisive action.

The simple and obvious fact is that heterosexuals are generally incapable of dealing with these issues effectively, since they are in control of world governments and raise the vast majority of the world's children. If heterosexuals were capable of dealing effectively with the products of their own sexuality, there would be no famine, no war, no environmental degradation.

My practice includes seeing and speaking the truth. Unless I see and speak the truth of my own life, I can never address the impediments to my own human evolution. Human evolution is only achieved when each human evolves, individually or in society. The current denial of overpopulation by those most responsible for that overpopulation, heterosexuals, is a threat to the human species.

Fire

The media interest in the recent wildfires in California has been focused on the rich and their losses. Multimillion-dollar homes destroyed near the beach. The obsession (attachment) of the society with money and things is reflected in these stories.

Fire, like flood, is a predictable force in the environment. It is man's dysfunction in Nature which worsens the effects of fire. Nature is not the enemy. That attitude is responsible for the deterioration of our planetary environment.

Overpopulation, greed, selfishness, materialism...these are the enemies of the planet, which will adjust to their onslaught with pure, unprejudiced physical and chemical reactions. It is not a moral, or even human, struggle. We are one species, a species which has intentionally abused the planet and many other species.

Effective practice for personal evolution demands confronting these realities daily in your own life. Practice includes taking responsibility for your own relationship to the planet. Without contact with Nature and education about it, there is no understanding of your own place in it.

Freedom

Freedom is not a product, a sales pitch, a slogan or an excuse for invasion and mass murder. Freedom comes only to the individual heart through liberation from attachment and aversion. The Middle Way, or Middle Path, is the path to true freedom. The Middle Path is found one step at a time. These steps constitute practice.

Dichotomy

The dichotomy of effective practice is this: One must be rigidly based in daily physical routine to maintain maximum wellness in order to be able to joyously embrace unpredictability and change.

Bhutto

Click here to read the biography of Benazir Bhutto on Wikipedia.

Corruption as norm. This is the worm which causes societies to collapse. It is motivated by greed and lust for power over other human beings.

It is noteworthy that Ms. Bhutto studied at both Harvard and Oxford. It is noteworthy that her corrupt business dealings included the Swiss, the French and the Poles. In other words, corruption is business s usual in the upper echelons of society. But, corruption is also a personal corrosive. It undermines honesty and trust in human relationships on all levels.

Guarding against corruption is part of my practice. It is particularly difficult in today's urban environment. The unscrupulous use corruption in the most inane transactions to mark their place in an overpopulated society, where wealth alone guarantees basic quality of life. Those who abandon a belief in universal human rights turn to corruption to insure their own rights and privileges. This process defines many governments in the world, including the current Republican government in the United States.

Work

I recently heard a weeping defendant of illegal immigration here in the US on a radio talk show. She said, "We all work so hard. Americans wouldn't want us to leave if they saw how hard we worked."

Well, I think this says a lot about the current attitudes toward work and law here in the US. Work for wages is considered moral. Respect for the law is considered dismissible. This is the Reaganite message: Money is good; how you get it is irrelevant. Ronald Reagan's own administration operated this way in international and domestic politics. The end, as long as it supported corporate power expansion, ruled the means.

The Reaganite myth is about to be toppled, like a statue of Lenin or Saddam. As the corporate promise of prosperity for all as an outfall of greed of the few becomes revealed as a big lie, as the world economies crumble from within due to the drunken greed of the rich, the uselessness of sacrificing one's life to the dollar will become quite obvious to the most gullible.

The most valuable work in life is the work of liberation. Liberation comes from detaching oneself from obsession and aversion. This is the Middle Way. Letting go of material obsession, anger obsession, family obsession, sexual obsession. Letting go of aversion to labor, aversion to difference, aversion to responsibility, aversion to risk, aversion to selflessness.

This is the work of mining the heart, the mind, the spirit. This is the work of study, social engagement, curiosity and generosity.

Practice is work. Its basis is daily commitment to doing the work of liberation.

Corn

The current documentary, "King Corn", points to a basic human trait. Human beings are prone to laziness. Corn is the easiest grain crop to grow and use for many different applications, despite its nutritional inferiority to other foods.

Western civilization, rapidly becoming world civilization, is dependent on a corn economy in the same way it is dependent on an oil economy. Both of these dependencies are toxic and potentially lethal for the human species and even the entire planet.

Individual practice of human evolution requires reducing or eliminating corn products and oil products from one's individual life. If you attempt this, you will find it very difficult. However, you will also find it may extend your life and also improve its quality in every moment.

Individualism

The Reaganite philosophy which is in full bloom in the USA right now is based on the narcissism of its idol, Ronald Reagan, and people like him. It is indeed right out of a bad movie of an Ayn Rand novel. It spells disaster for humanity.

The Hurricane Katrina disaster is exactly what is to be expected in a Reaganite world. No government services. No humanity in the response of government. No social consciousness. Just photo ops for those who will stop at nothing to achieve wealth and celebrity for themselves.

Buddhist thought is not individualistic in its relationship to society. While the Buddhist message is geared to individual responsibility and empowerment, its overall goal is the enlightenment (evolution) of all beings. This can only be achieved by the mindful and compassionate sharing of resources, ideas and goals among motivated human beings for the betterment of all.

Change

How to embrace change and spontaneity, while mindfully attending to the routine responsibilities which create a basis of health from which One can evolve and share?

This is the challenge of the Middle Path. Shun attachment. Shun aversion. Shun ritual for ritual's sake. Shun mindless impulse. Balance through moderation is the goal and the remedy.

Time

Time is structured by events, and events are structured by time.

I find that practice is very much tied to the mindful use of time. Our time is limited by planetary rotation (days), our own limited lifespans and our human needs for sleep, nutrition, shelter, and socialization. Within these external limitations, the mindful person faces the challenge of using time for personal evolution, as well as the maintenance of health and wellbeing.

The key to mindful use of time, I believe, is the maintenance of daily rituals of self discipline. Proper nutrition, proper exercise, proper intellectual stimulation, proper planning and work for one's material needs. All these elements are necessary to maintain balance, which can be a platform for personal growth and advancement. When a person is balanced and able to advance/evolve, he can then contribute a great deal to the lives of others.

The person who is disorganized, undisciplined and unbalanced has little to offer anyone. His imbalance destabilizes his environment. While a chaotic environment may yield its own form of creativity, its contribution to those involved immediately with it is limited and can be disruptive to their lives. This is not the behavior of a mindful and compassionate being.

Peace comes with the absence of fear. Humans naturally fear the unpredictable and unknown. Mastery of this fear comes with mastery of the distractions of desire and impulse. Establishing a routine of health, learning and compassionate sharing is at the core of my practice.

Autumn

Taking the time to appreciate the seasons is essential to becoming a mindful citizen of the planet. Walking in nature facilitates this. It revives the senses and stimulates thoughts and feelings, which pertain to the personal relationship between each of us and the planet.

Autumn here in New England is especially dramatic and provocative. The visual and aromatic changes are not at all subtle. The light changes drastically around the autumnal equinox. Suddenly there is shade where none existed for months. The color of everything is changed by the new light. Dawns and dusks become vivid, almost melodramatic. Gardens begin to shrink and die in stages. Fall flowers puff out their chests with desperate bravado.

I revel in autumnal change. I am in the autumnal stage of my own life cycle. My practice entails being where I am as fully and appreciatively as possible. Including time on foot in nature makes this practice easier and more enjoyable.