Beauty

Visual perceptions of human beauty are obviously learned behaviors. What is beautiful in one culture is not beautiful in another. What one person finds beautiful in a lover may horrify another.

Yet, there are social trends of beauty. These are taught to a receptive public by the drumming of visual commercial media. Long hair, short hair, tall, short, thin and plump. These all come and go with the whim of advertisers and the appetite of consumers for change.

There are also basic, generally accepted elements of human beauty which include youthfulness, muscularity, symmetry, smoothness of skin, large eyes, thick hair, white teeth, etc..

The current materialism in society, combined with relentless saturation of daily life with commercial media which use human beauty to sell things, has led to a reduction of human beauty to its superficial material value. Beauty has been reduced to a manipulative tool to achieve materialistic gains. This is a generalized prostitution ethic, which is revealing itself on all levels of society.

One result of this ethic is the devaluation of hard work and merit as keys to success. The consequences of this are obvious. When those with marketable beauty become catapulted to positions of responsibility and celebrity over those with merit, genius or dedication, the fabric of society deteriorates.

Part of my practice is a conscious attempt to focus on merit, decency and intelligence in the people around me. This practice rapidly has made me aware that those with marketable beauty are seldom the focus of my attention in public settings or in general interactions. If conventional beauty has become power and power corrupts, then conventional beauty corrupts.

Pain

I had a recent surgery on my left foot's sole and middle toe. The sole's circular hole, about half an inch in diameter, goes down through many layers of skin to the deep red dermis underneath. It is painful when I put weight on it. The middle toe is missing one third of its tip. It isn't very happy when it is up against the inside of a shoe.

I resolved to maintain my life's routines through the inconvenience of the pain. Mornings are new beginnings. Striking the right balance. Avoiding the kind of movement which will cause knee and hip problems later. Navigating the stairs. Making my peace with the unavoidable pain.

This is a tremendous opportunity to learn about my practice and the realities of my daily life. What do I value? How committed am I to do certain activities? How flexible are my needs and desires. What is my true relationship between my consciousness and its source, my body?

So far, I am learning that I can work with pain consciously. I am also learning how much of my energy is eaten by the pain. I am using this awareness to feed my sense of compassion for those who live with chronic pain. I am also using it to temper my impatience with those who are unable to tolerate pain or discomfort.

Dealing with pain is a challenge. And, the brain has a mechanism which erases the experiential memory of pain once it is resolved. So, if I am not in pain, I do not "feel" your pain, as much as I may empathize from past experience.

My history of experiencing pain has been essential to my own personal evolution. Pain teaches humility, patience and temperance, if you are a willing student.

Racism

I am fascinated by the nebulous application of the word, 'racist'. For example, I have been accused of being racist by simply stating obvious, scientifically studied, sociological and anthropological elements of various racial and ethnic groups. Tribalism among Africans, for example. Matriarch worship among Latin Americans. Single female parenting in the African-American communities and its parallel in the poor white American communities.

However, given that I spent 20 years of my life physically washing, dressing and bandaging people of all origins with equal care and concern, I do not think I am more or less racist than the average decent human being with functional eyes, which are never color blind.

Now, when white people of all backgrounds across this country are obviously supporting an erratic, angry and bitter militarist because they will not vote for a biracial man with dark skin, few people anywhere seem willing to apply 'racist' as a descriptive adjective to these individuals. This means simply that America has become The Land of the Stupid and Superficial.

Living in fear of truth, science and the obvious will lead to disaster for any individual or society. Ask any well educated German or Russian about his nation's history. The Big Lie is always the common enemy. Unless you live in the light of truth and science, you are part of the Big Lie and cannot see beyond it.

Practice is a pursuit of truth. Self truth and world truth. Understanding the truth of things, as close as we can ever get to that truth, is a daily commitment and struggle, which requires time, energy and concentration on lots of information. Without this pursuit as a cornerstone of practice, life is filled with illusions and delusions. The deluded person cannot be a truly compassionate person.

Honesty

You cannot achieve peace and happiness in your life without developing the practice of honesty in relating with others.

Honesty with others requires honesty with oneself. Honesty with oneself requires self knowledge, self acceptance and the practice of self improvement, or evolution.

We are currently living in a popular culture in which alcoholism and distaste for self exploration are in vogue. Denial is rampant. Denial of real financial worth. Denial of responsibility for debts. Denial of responsibility for children's education. Denial of responsibility for the welfare of the society as a whole.

Self exploration, through meditation, intimate relationships, psychotherapy or other tools, is absolutely necessary to achieve self knowledge and honesty. It is necessary to take regular hard looks at your motives, emotions, reactions and hopes. Doing this throughout your day and your life will deepen your understanding of your life.

Self acceptance is the practice of looking at the results of your self exploration and accepting those results as who you really are. Warts and all!

Self improvement entails working from your real self image and daily working to make yourself more loving, more compassionate, healthier and more generous. It also can entail making yourself less selfish and less obsessed with your own needs at the same time.

"Spiritual" practices, based in sanctimonious and ethereal rites, are useless when seeking happiness and peace in one's life. Incense and fancy dress never made anyone a better or happier person. Hard work does. And it is best to start working right now.

Culture

Multiculturalism has become the refuge for scoundrels of all cultures.

Rudeness, public indecency, littering, obnoxious children, uncontrolled pets, vandalism, improper maintenance of private property. These blights on the general culture are routinely defended and excused by so-called multiculturalists, or The Politically Correct. Political correctness is used as a shield by the irresponsible and irresponsive. Looking the other way rather than practicing civic responsibility is a rampant behavior in urban society.

I ride public transport often. I see the deterioration in the American cultural ethic every time I am on the train. Garbage is thrown everywhere. People monopolize whole sections of a train to the exclusion of other passengers. Punks place their feet up and use three or four seats at their personal space with arrogant looks of challenge to anyone who might approach, regardless of that passenger's age or need of a seat.

These are symptoms of the dissolution of the fabric of civil society. By extolling the wonders of the cultures of our massive influx of immigrants, Americans have lowered the standard of their own country's etiquette to that of the Third World. Some immigrants have no needed role models, because nobody takes the time or risk of telling them their bahavior is simply inappropriate or disturbing to those around them. The poor who are native to America once looked to those who were better educated and mannered for standards of behavior. No more. They look to the deteriorated culture and simply behave as they would in their own educationally deprived homes. After all, nobody will take the time or energy to tell them otherwise. And, if some responsible, courageous citizen does speak up, that poor soul is often unsupported or even criticized by the lazy and undercultured around him/her in a public situation.

Practice involves constant self-appraisal, self-education, self-discipline. However, compassion cannot be practiced in isolation. Compassion sometimes entails correcting wrong behavior directly or by example. By correcting wrong, or uncivilized/dysfunctional social behaviors, the practitioner is being compassionate. The practitioner is trying to help the corrected person live a more functional and happy life in society.