Justice

What exactly is justice? The question comes loud and clear after a murderer, released from Massachusetts custody by a judge, settled in Washington State and allegedly killed two people over a grudge, involving $50.

The real, natural world has no justice in the human sense. Predators kill the weak or vulnerable in order to eat. Tornadoes touch down wherever they touch down. Wild fires devour trailers and mansions alike.

So, justice is a changeable and evolving concept of the human mind. It is not a natural absolute. Religion was the exclusive arbiter of justice in most societies until recent human history. The current cultural clash between religions and judiciaries around the world is a major human evolutionary stage. Secular justice, based on evidence, science, debate and education of jurors, is an improvement over torture, guessing and prejudice in resolving criminal situations.

Modern legal justice struggles with the conflict between precedent and science. Precedent, a vestigial pillar of the Law, which can lead to plainly stupid decisions like the Washington case, is slowly giving way to informed scientific considerations. Enlightened justice is fluid and extremely well informed in the moment. It does not fall back on precedent or religion rather than taking advice from the most current expertise available in each case. Stagnant, uninformed law is bad law. It becomes a pseudo-religious impediment to true justice.

As a person who can be and has been judged "less than equal" in my own life, due to biological circumstances out of my control, under the current Law in most of the United States, I have had to use my practice to deal with the anger and resentment which injustice can cause.

Practice can be a system of internal justice in your own life.

Love

Being absorbed with living without being absorbed with loving makes people act like solitary animals in the wild.

Don't feed the bears, but love them from afar.

Thanksgiving

I probably say "Thank you." at least a dozen or more times a day. I don't say it unless I mean it usually, but it is an easy habit to get into. You see, I am thinking "I appreciate what you are doing in this momentary interaction." when I say "Thank you." It is my way of connecting with a clerk or a person in the supermarket who may move her cart to let me pass down the aisle. In these times of mass alienation, I find that this simple phrase can convert a zombie into an animated human being. A true miracle. If I see that happen a dozen times a day, it cheers me up. I begin to believe that I am still living in a world of awake human beings, despite so much evidence to the contrary.

Every day is Thanksgiving Day for me on this basic level of practice. No deity required. Just a determination to be alive and interactive with other members of my species in a peaceful way.

Holidays

In the early days of human development, people lived in small tribal groups. Life was hard. Nature was a mysterious enemy or friend, depending on the season and the weather. Periodic rites (precursors of holidays) were devised to bring tribes together for common purpose to benefit the tribe's survival and possible prosperity.

We no longer live in tribal groups. We no longer live in villages or other cohesive community groups based on simple proximity. Holidays, as they are today, have been taken over by the capitalist machine to sell things. That's all they are: Sales opportunities. People in capitalist countries are brainwashed by commercial media to buy airline tickets, buy gas, buy presents, buy unusual foods in huge amounts, buy alcoholic beverages, etc.. If you doubt this, go to a store on the day before a major holiday or just turn on a television.

Every day is actually the same. Every day is an opportunity for personal growth. Wasting time, energy and money fulfilling your indoctrinated role to make some fat cat richer is rather pathetic. It is a waste of your human potential. It is hollow ritual.

Perhaps your holiday could be spent in meditation, in fasting, in serving someone else who is disabled or impoverished or simply alone in the world. Perhaps you could spend your holiday writing letters/emails to all the government officials who wrongly support war, bigotry, exploitation of the poor and preferential treatment to the wealthy. Think what would happen if even a small percentage of the population did that on every holiday.

Patience

We are finite, mortal. Our lives can be measured in seconds, minutes, hours. As the clock ticks, our lives diminish in length. This is a reality that few can face directly and consciously in every moment. The developed practice of doing this can lead to great peace and patience.

The wisdom of accepting the active death of every moment is this: Nothing is crucial or indispensable or irrevocable. In short, nothing is as precious as the present moment.

This is both a challenge and a relief. The challenge is to be, in each precious moment, a mindful, compassionate and evolving person. The relief comes with the acceptance of death as the inevitable equalizer of all things. Comprehension of these realities through practice brings great patience and peace.

Baran

Bernard Baran has lived a saintly life. He would probably deny this opinion. (Click picture to get more details.)

Baran was wrongly convicted of child molestation at the age of 19 by false evidence drummed up by a homophobic district attorney in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in response to accusations leveled by people who themselves should have been on trial as abusive and dysfunctional human beings. Bernard was and is an openly gay man, who left high school and worked as a child care worker. Bernard Baran served a 21 year sentence in high security prisons rather than admit guilt to crimes he did not commit. He was given the opportunity to leave prison after 5 years if he admitted guilt for crimes he did not commit. (Click picture for more details.)

Bernard Baran, a slight, gentle and soft-spoken man, had to be moved from prison to prison over his 21 year hell because of severe and repeated abuse by other prisoners.

Baran is free now due to the discovery of evidence in his favor which was lost/suppressed/hidden by the district attorney who prosecuted him. When Bernard's persecutor, the district attorney, died, tapes showing the manipulation of the 3 and 4 year olds whose 'testimony' cost Bernard 21 years of freedom.

The story does not end there. The government is tying up Bernard's case with endless red tape. One would think in a gay-friendly Massachusetts that allegedly gay-friendly Governor Deval Patrick would intervene to see to it that Bernard's case came to a swift resolution. And, one would think that he should receive prompt compensation for this unbelievable injustice.

Bernard Baran is living his life now as a simple man with his own apartment and a job as a landscaper. There was no compensation awarded to him for the injustice he suffered. Yet, he remains a man with calm acceptance and assertion of his truth.

Homophobia is not dead, even here in Massachusetts. Practice entails looking at reality in the moment and facing the world for what it is. Bernard Baran's practice of sacrifice of his freedom for half his life in order to preserve his truth and integrity is a great model for me. His persecutors' insistence upon continuing their persecution of him is evidence of what is evil in the world.

Technology

I heard a software developer speak yesterday on the radio. He was speculating on futuristic technology, such as the home fabrication of goods via the Internet. He was excited at the concept of being able to order a T-shirt on line and being able to physically download that T-shirt without leaving the house. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

I was astounded by the level of worldly myopia in this man. I assume he is educated. I could not understand how this man was so oblivious to the problems of overpopulation and declining natural resources, when the interviewer asked him about the role of environmental factors in these predictions.

Then I remembered. Technology today is motivated by the same factors which motivated the technology which brought us the Industrial Revolution and the carbon economy. That motivation is associated with accommodating overpopulation, rather than addressing it. It is associated with compensation for environmental deterioration, rather than avoiding it.

Technology alone will not solve the problems of overpopulation and environmental disaster. A conscious revolution in the hearts and minds of the general human population may do this. That revolution begins with each person's awareness and commitment to the human species above governments and corporations. Wellness must become superior to wealth in the human consciousness.

Individual practice of this consciousness daily is like a beneficial virus, which spreads with contact to others. Infect the world with your practice of mindfulness and compassion by example.

Perspective

I am a scrap of paper on the wind of the Universe.

Imprinted deep in my fiber is a message, a truth.

That truth can move any heart or mind, set in stone.

Pakistan

The United States government supports dictatorships around the world. This is a simple fact.

The United States government, founded as an instrument of service and protection for its constituents by its designers, has deteriorated into an instrument of control and corruption in opposition to the true interests of its constituents. This is the way of men and women in power. Yes, power corrupts.

Any feelings of superiority which a citizen may feel as an American are unfounded. In fact, since the Constitution of the United States places responsibility for change and direction on the citizens, all Americans should currently be ashamed of the state of their nation and their democracy. And this shame should ideally be shown in the results of upcoming elections.

While waving an accusing hand at Muslim extremists, capitalist extremists under the false banner of Christianity have taken control of the American government, its army, its courts and its media. This must change, if the United States is to survive as a nation of justice, freedom and prosperity for all.

Human evolution toward mindfulness, peace and compassion requires a practice of responsible world citizenship. This citizenship, as a member of the human species, far overshadows the role of a member of a political party, a government or a nation. Those who unjustly control and corrupt the common good through politics are far more despicable than common criminals.

Bears

The great bears, grizzly and brown and polar, are becoming endangered. Zoologists are predicting the extinction of all but the black bear by century's end. The African elephant is also close to extinction. Whale species are also becoming extinct. And, someday, the human species may cause its own extinction by collapsing ecology.

Read and learn, fellow human. Abandon thoughts of some universal deity who will protect you from your own bad choices, based in ignorance, denial or stupidity. Pick up a book. Surf the Web for knowledge, not sports scores, stock quotes or pornography.

Wake up. Your life passes with each minute, each day, each year. It goes and is gone. What is the measure of that life right now? What is its meaning, its impact? These are the thoughts which lead to human evolution, despite inevitable death and personal extinction.