2010

As this ancient globe rotates its northern hemisphere toward the sun for another segment of its annual orbit, my head spins with concepts of time, aging and unfinished business in my own life. Hurtling through space sounds like fun. But, I realize I am the size of a bacterium on my vehicle. So the thrill must be sought by gazing at the sky with determined attention.

I have felt the earth move under me. It is an unforgettable experience. You'll know it when it happens. My most memorable experience of the ride through this tiny part of The Universe occurred around 2 AM on a January morning. I stood atop a snow-covered dune at Herring Cove, outside Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod. Above, a clear sky allowed an unobstructed view of The Universe beyond. Twinkling colors amid unfathomable, cold darkness. Breathtaking.

In that moment of space travel, I experienced my oneness with the essence of all that shining energy out there. I experienced the weightlessness of my own energy field, the electric pulses which transmit feeling and thought beyond the confines of cellular walls. The energy of imagination. The flickering comprehension of timelessness.

Since then, I have carried the memory of that experience, locked in consciousness, like spice in a jar. I sprinkle it, when needed, upon my gravity-weighted life. It adds zest, perspective and refreshment. And, as I embark upon my 61st year on this planet, I hope to continue to look up from time to time, so I can enjoy the ride.

Christmas

Christmas Past: When I was a child, I thought as a child.

Christmas Present: Double entendre.

Christmas Future: Possibly, the 22,272 nd day of my life.

Happy Hollandaise.

Polls

I have been looking at several polling sites. I occurred to me that there is no regulation or oversight of these polling sites.

So, a thought came to me, as I saw a preponderance of positive data about Red States and a preponderance of negative data about Blue States on one site: In a media-driven, poll-diven, divided government, wouldn't it be likely that corrupting interests would manage to control and manipulate polls? Who would know? The polling sites I have visited show no signs of transparency in terms of their corporate links, institutional links or their data. Yet, our politicians are driven by these statisticians' pronouncements about the voter's psyche.

Is it really likely, for example, that the majority of a population, plagued by a major financial collapse and its insecurities, really doesn't want improved health care coverage? or sticter climate remediation policies? I wonder, but whose numbers can I trust in a society which has been corrupted by international corporate manipulation?

Humanism

Most likely, intentional, practical individual and group humanism predates history. It certainly predates monotheism. It may well have predated theism. After all, animism, which seems to have promoted a higher standard for respect of all life, predated theism. It seems sensible and logical to speculate that early tribes survived through some form of humanism. Throughout recorded history, practical and philosophical humanism are recorded. Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, referred to Greek and Roman humanism in his Renaissance Humanism of the 14th Century, as one example.

I considered my own intellectual motivation to do good in the world as my humanism for the past four decades. My understanding and application of that word, humanism, is simple: Humanism is my practice of being a truthful, responsible, giving and respectful human being with an awareness that every person, while ultimately living and dying alone in an unique human experience, has the same basic human rights, to life and peace, and the same responsibilities to himself and to all humankind.

Recently, a new popular movement has arisen under the name of Humanism, in part, I believe, as a predictable reaction to the rising religious fundamentalism of the last two decades. Opposite and equal reactive forces are part of the physics of life in this Universe.

I have been privileged to meet Greg Epstein, the Humanist Chaplain at Harvard University, who has written a book called "Good Without God: What A Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe". He is a dynamo of energy on behalf of his ideals. He represents, in my opinion, the energy and good will which are needed qualities in this world.

My concern about this new Humanism, as it spirals into a popular movement, is that it may fall prey to some of the cancers of religion and other human bureaucracies, which are born initially as popular movements. One of the calcifying diseases of movements for good is the establishment of authority by the perceived leadership of a movement.

Pastors and popes, imams and rabbis, lamas and shamans, all these authorities have contributed more misery to humankind than enlightenment. My own sense of humanism is based in its foundation in peer, human relationships, which are equal and mutually educational. The sum of intelligence in these relationships exceeds any amount of intelligence in the one human brain of any authority figure.

The fellowship, equality and mutual learning of movements in their early development is what powers them. The establishment of hierarchy and authority usually saps them of their creativity and goodness, as greed and ego corrupt. Once the process of a movement yields to this force, it is no longer an open, free movement of people of like minds. It becomes a bureaucracy, which exists for itself and for the support of its management.

While this seems increasingly unavoidable in the materialist, media-driven world of this time, I am optimistic enough to believe that this process is not inevitable in this Humanism movement that is currently developing with the help of Greg Epstein and many others. I hope that this new Humanism can develop as a cooperative fellowship of equals, which can draw comfortably on the expertise of individuals for the common good, without ceding to anyone, or group, the 'last word' of authoritarian orthodoxy.

Buddhist?

It may come as a surprise to the reader that I do not consider myself to be a Buddhist. I do not consider myself to be 'GLBT' either. I do not consider myself to be 'white'. I do not consider myself to be 'Liberal'. I do not consider myself to be 'spiritual'.

I do consider myself to be the bane of all those who seek to capture and use followers for a movement, a trend or a religion. I consider myself to be 'one-being-striving-to-become-consciously-truthfully-responsibly'. Some would call me a 'free-thinker', but I do more than just think.

I do not deprive myself of the right to make judgments, decisions, evaluations, criticisms, or bad jokes. I do take responsibility for my words and actions to the best of my ability.

There is a common misconception that those who are non-violent, direct, optimistic, socialistic, intelligent and responsible are easily confronted by violence, mocking, chiding, cynicism, gangsterism. This is high-school thinking. And, unfortunately, many people in the general population do not evolve socially, emotionally or psychologically after high school. This is the price they pay for conforming to the identity that has been handed to them by society.

The title of this blog, "Buddha's Pillow", is a riddle, a provocative play on words, which, I would hope, those who have seriously studied Buddhism and other bodies of thought will understand with a smile. To those who are looking for their own Truth in my words, I simply suggest you are looking in the wrong place. If this blog has any worth, it will simply be a spark in a combustible mind.

Stupidity

The current 'new' political movement in the U.S. is the Tea Party movement, which developed around opposition to universal health care in 2009. Some of the opportunists behind this movement (perhaps 'business' would be a better term) are techies in Chicago who founded the Samuel Adams Alliance. The name of this group belies the stupidity, or perhaps duplicity, of its motives. Samuel Adams, according to their literature, was chosen as their mascot based on their appreciation of his Libertarian, anti-government principles.

Below is a quotation from http://www.ushistory.org/, which tells a different story about Samuel Adams. Perhaps the new Tea Party patriots should start drinking their 'tea', rather than smoking it.

"Samuel and John Adams' names are almost synonymous in all accounts of the Revolution that grew, largely, out of Boston. Though they were cousins and not brothers, they were often referred to as the Adams' brothers, or simply as the Adams'. Samuel Adams was born in Boston, son of a merchant and brewer. He was an excellent politician, an unsuccessful brewer, and a poor businessman. His early public office as a tax collector might have made him suspect as an agent of British authority, however he made good use of his understanding of the tax codes and wide acquaintance with the merchants of Boston. Samuel was a very visible popular leader who, along with John, spent a great deal of time in the public eye agitating for resistance. In 1765 he was elected to the Massachusetts Assembly where he served as clerk for many years. It was there that he was the first to propose a continental congress. He was a leading advocate of republicanism and a good friend of Tom Paine. In 1774, he was chosen to be a member of the provincial council during the crisis in Boston. He was then appointed as a representative to the Continental Congress, where he was most noted for his oratory skills, and as a passionate advocate of independence from Britain. In 1776, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence. Adams retired from the Congress in 1781 and returned to Massachusetts to become a leading member of that state's convention to form a constitution. In 1789 he was appointed lieutenant governor of the state. In 1794 he was elected Governor, and was re-elected annually until 1797 when he retired for health reasons. He died in the morning of October 2, 1803, in his home town of Boston."...

Opportunism

Since I didn't go to Oxford or Harvard, I'll begin by quoting Wikipedia:

Opportunism is a term used in politics and political science. It forms an important rationale as well for transaction cost economics. It is interpreted n different ways, but usually refers to one or more of the following:

....a political style of aiming to increase one's political influence at almost any price, or a political style which involves seizing every and any opportunity to extend one's political influence, whenever such opportunities arise.

....the practice of abandoning in reality some important political principles that were previously held, in the process of trying to increase one's political power and influence.

....a trend of thought, or a political tendency, seeking to make political capital out of situations with the main aim being that of gaining more influence or support, instead of truly winning people over to a principled position or improving their political understanding.

Most politicians are "opportunists" to some extent at least (they aim to utilize political opportunities to their advantage), but the controversies surrounding the concept concern the exact relationship between "seizing a political opportunity" and the political principles being espoused

Milton Friedman, the Father of Contemporary Narcissistic Greed, in my opinion, is quoted as saying, "One man's opportunism is another man's statesmanship."

The problem is this: Media and politics have merged in our electronic age. Media has made politics a spectator sport. This is, of course, intentional. The powers who hold the media wish to hold the world's vision and shape it to their liking. The Fourth Estate, a free and somewhat anarchic press (newspapers), has disintegrated under electronic capitalism. The anarchy exists on the Web, but it is only anarchy within the boundaries of commercial capitalism. It is bourgeois anarchy. One must have a computer and a certain amount of capital, as well as technical education, to get one's message actually seen on the Web. In order to influence society in any way in the world of virtual information, one must subscribe to Google Ads or other mechanisms of capitalism. And this trend is becoming more and more entrenched.

So, as media and politics do their dance, politics effect media as well. And, as media is effected, or infected, with political opportunism, the whole public discourse becomes opportunistic. As the whole public discourse becomes opportunistic (think: bipartisan, extremist, materialistic, etc.), people themselves become opportunistic. Human beings tend to mimic their leaders. Now, more than ever, human beings study their leaders by being bombarded with constant information about them. Perhaps this explains why Sarah Palin has become a perfect storm of a relatively ignorant beauty queen, elevated to national political figure.

I wish I could say the leaders have taken this to heart and put their houses in order under the weight of their responsibility to the public they represent and influence. They have not.

The Oprah-ization of the population is one result. To have the light of the Oprah spotlight shine on your life is salvation in the modern culture in the US and, increasingly, in the rest of the world, as it becomes infected by American media. The Oprah spotlight now comes in many forms: American Idol, Survivor and dozens of other reality TV shows. The book-publishing industry has been particularly infected with Oprah-ism, since it was soon discovered that her magic wand can make or break an author's sales record. An author's sales record is what determines the quality of what is published more than ever in increasingly attention-deficient times.

So, what happens when a world becomes overpopulated by one predatory species, infected by opportunism? I think we are beginning to see exactly what happens in our environment and social structures. Sharp divisions between the wealthy and vast majority of struggling-to-be-wealthy. With these divisions, environmental fall-out is inevitable. China and India, among the latter class, refuse to consider curbing their carbon emissions, for one example.

As for 'American culture', what else could evolve in a country which tries to idealistically apply the illogically mutated principles of slave-owners from two centuries ago to a present world that has absolutely no scientific relationship to that past? If America turned to its present with hard and discerning eyes, it would walk away from its self-righteous meddling in the affairs of other nations with shame and embarrassment. Perhaps it would then tend to its own health and survival.

War

Preemptive war is a policy of fear, not strength. "We're fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them here." This is lunatic and childish thinking. They are already here, as evidenced by American Somalis going back to Africa to fight with extremists, as evidenced by the several recent bombing plots uncovered by the FBI, as evidenced by the rapid development of mosques being built in the U.S. to accommodate Muslim immigrants.

The poverty and ignorance that has led to jihad throughout the Muslim world is the fault of the same regimes we have supported politically. Now we pressurize a victimized and deprived civilian population by killing them with our military might in their homelands, while still supporting their oppressive and corrupt leadership.

If we withdrew our armies, the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan would have to make their own choices and allegiances. Frankly, they would be too busy sorting themselves out to worry about attacking the U.S.. That is simple common sense. Viet Nam was a prime example of this.

The current government war policy in Iraq and Afghanistan has its roots in the same evil which brought us the catastrophic lessons of Viet Nam. That evil is the attempt and success of the military-industrial complex to run U.S. foreign policy, against the founding precepts of the U.S., as designed by leaders like George Washington, who insisted that the military be subject to civilian rule.

I am sorry to see the Obama administration bow to the military-industrial complex in Afghanistan. It speaks of a weakness in that administration. It speaks of an abandonment of the politics of peace and reconciliation by that administration. My only hope comes with an understanding that a new anti-war movement will rise from these events, as the American people feel the cost in lives and in their wallets for many years to come.

Materialism

Today I have been bombarded with breathless accounts of people shopping by journalists at National Public Radio, considered by some to be the font of intelligent reporting. What is wrong with this society?

Several months ago people were assaulting politicians who were finally trying to do something to help people by reforming a broken health care system. Today they were rushing into stores to charge gadgets, for which many of them have no money. The brainwashing to buy is coming from those disproportionately unaffected by the current Depression, in which millions of middle class people are spiraling into poverty.

Wake up, America. Wall Street is not your friend. Mainstream media is no longer objective. Your future is at stake.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is part of most of my days. Any show of basic human kindness in this increasingly materialistic and impersonal culture is appreciated and acknowledged by me. The simple holding of a door, as I enter a building, touches me. The genuine greeting of a clerk at a cash register merits my respect and appreciation, as a person who has worked with the public for many years. The unseen train operator, who sees me running for my train and leaves the doors open after the platform has cleared, gains my appreciation and respect. The stranger on a sidewalk, who deftly lets me pass or moves to one side to share the way as she approaches, deserves my smile and nod. The shopper in a crowded supermarket, who is careful to not block my way with his cart, is never taken for granted by me. The shop employee, who notices me squinting at an empty shelf and asks, "Can I help you?" with sincere interest, impresses me and gains my respect. The elderly person, who stops to let me pass and says with a winded smile, "You go ahead, I know I'm slow.", deeply humbles me with her acknowledged kindness.

Thanksgiving isn't a just holiday. Thanksgiving is an acquired, in-the-moment habit which makes the world a little better for everyone.

Finally, I have to publically thank the person who anonymously shared this Thanksgiving photograph on the Web. I have to say, I identify with the turkey.

Extremes

One of the goals of my practice, learned from Buddhist and monastic Christian practice, is the narrowing of my moment-by-moment attention away from the extremes of my reactions and desires. It is the most difficult and most rewarding aspect of my practice.

In the US, we live in a country of extreme views and extreme differences in wealth and well-being. While the extremes, diluted by a bureaucratically grinding government, generate slow social progress, the temperament of America is fickle and often unfocused. Materialism is the common ethos of the country. Freedom, as touted and seen by most Americans, is a euphemism for selfish pursuit of monetary wealth and/or celebrity. This adds to the challenge of practice for me.

Tempering the extremes of reaction and desire, brings calmness to the mind. Calmness of the mind allows for self-confidence and an understanding of self. Self-confidence and self-understanding allay many personal cravings. Allaying personal cravings allows the perception of the needs and humanity of others. Generally perceiving the needs and humanity of others, without seeing them through selfish insecurity and/or desire, breeds compassion. Compassion brings love. Love extinguishes fear and violence.

This doesn't just happen. It's exhaustive labor much of the time. A simple subway ride in the city with this consciousness brings countless tests of my resolve to practice. Driving in the city makes this practice nearly impossible for me. But, the commitment to the effort has paid off.

Militarism

Humans disagree. Conflict is inevitable. Violence, however, is a human choice in the twenty-first century. While violence works for the biggest and strongest at any given moment in human history, it does not work for the human species.

There is a new militarism in the US. It is becoming subtle, gentrified by corrupted politicians, who value re-election and financial gain over the welfare of their constituents. Militarism is no longer a Left-Right issue. Corporate corruption of our political system has seen to it that the media they own foster this new militarism with sentimentality and near-sightedness. Even 'public' broadcasting outlets, both radio and television, have fallen prey to this. It was probably inevitable when all media succumbed to the Bush-Cheney manipulation of embedding reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As a child of post-WWII America, I have lived with the side effects of the militarism of that period. I was raised by a traumatized father, whose psyche was permanently twisted by his experiences in WWII. I watched as my own government tried to intimidate those of us who demonstrated peacefully against the Viet Nam War. I was a college student at the time of the Kent State Massacre. I watched Buddhist monks set themselves on fire in front of TV cameras to show the suffering of their people and the evil of war.

We are emerging from eight years of Right-Wing indoctrination and intimidation in the US. The military establishment was an active part of that process for eight years. Now, while portraying himself as a centrist, our President, who we elected as an agent of change, is engaging in the militarism of the culture by participating in sentimental patriotism, which sounds to me like old-fashioned nationalism, complete with 'God and country' speeches.

I mourn this Veterans Day for all those pacifists who have fallen, who have been victimized, who have been forced to leave their country to avoid persecution. I mourn all those civilians all over the planet who are killed and tortured by men and women, wearing uniforms and wielding guns or machetes.

Massacre

The Kent State Massacre on May 4, 1970, was the intentional murder of four unarmed, peace-promoting civilians by the US military. Now, Americans are being propagandized to see the deaths of soldiers on a military base at the hands of one of their own officers as 'tragic'. While I mourn the loss of any human life to violence, I suggest that the US military is part of the violence problem, not part of its solution.

Murder

The recent shooting deaths at Fort Hood, Texas, have been reported as an atrocity which has shocked and dismayed the military. Great sentimentality has accompanied the endless stories of this situation in the media. "A sentimentalist", Oscar Wilde wrote to Alfred Douglas, "is one who desires to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it."

What does the military do? Some would say they are defending us. This is an atavistic piece of indoctrination, in my opinion. In fact, the incident at Fort Hood illustrates that the US military establishment is incapable of defending itself against lunatic violence. The business of the military is gun violence.

The high murder rate in the US, the highest among wealthy nations, reflects the commitment of American culture to violence as a method to resolve conflict. The US is a gun culture, a violence culture. Its media reflect this. Its politicians bow to it, whenever the question of gun control is raised. The NRA is perhaps the most powerful lobby in the US.

So, why all the hand-wringing and weeping when a lunatic shoots people at random? This reflects a deep immaturity in American culture. It reflects a culture which has lost its compass. It reflects a culture which is based on materialism and wealth-accumulation over quality of life and social equality. It reflects a culture where people will murder valuable, educated physicians to protect an embryo. It reflects a culture bullied by religions which promote hatred and rationalize the murder of those who disagree with them.

At the core of this breakdown of values in the US is the corruption of power by money. The ability of the NRA to prevent measures which would immediately decrease the murder rate in the US is simply wrong. The determination of the US government to continue to squander its human and economic capital in Afghanistan and Iraq to prop up corrupt regimes is a symptom of its own corruption. Corruption always enlists violence historically to maintain its power.

Practicing non-violence in a murderous culture is courageous. Responsible valor entails valuing human life over one's own personal interests or beliefs. Responsible patriotism entails a commitment to improve the quality of life for all citizens in one's country. Responsible parenting is teaching your children that violence is wrong, whether it is on a video screen or on a street.

Reproduction

At the core of all the problems facing the human species is its inability to examine and effectively deal with human reproduction. Reproduction is considered a human right, but dealing rationally with reproduction has not been treated effectively by most societies as a human responsibility.

The result is the ever-growing problem of overpopulation, which lies at the root of all the planetary problems of our age. Do you doubt this? If so, I would suggest that you are either ill informed or naive.

Industrialization, based in petroleum, has developed as a means to support population, as well as a means for the most aggressive and wily of our species to ensure their own progeny's survival and dominance . This petroleum based industrialization is the cause of global warming. It is the basis of corporate agriculture, which is stamping out biodiversity and producing food which can maintain an overpopulated planet at a huge cost in nutritional and cultural value. The processing of human waste in industrialized, urban population centers produces a sludge, which is used as fertilizer on millions of acres of land. The heavy metals in that sludge have already rendered thousands upon thousands of acres permanently useless for food production, due to the heavy metals from pipes and pollutants in it.

Educated people in industrialized countries look to the underdeveloped world and shake their heads at the lack of family planning there. Well motivated couples adopt children from those countries, as opposed to having children of their own. These people are perhaps the most rational and courageous planetary stewards in our times. However, corporate capitalism preaches the values of overpopulation, which is considered 'growth'. More cookie-cutter developments, more widgets for more factories to produce more useless junk to fill more landfills. Insanity.

An examination of the Chinese experience with The One-Child Policy illustrates the inability of human beings to address, understand and control their own reproduction for the common good of the species. And, even in a China which is now reaping the benefits of that policy, it is spoken of with condemnation by 'human rights' advocates in China and abroad. How about the human right to have enough space to grow food and enough clean air to breathe?

I hold the opinion that being a truly mindful and compassionate Humanist entails a commitment to fostering and practicing socially responsible reproduction of the human species. It is key. Wars, disease and famine have been the only modifiers of human population to date. With advances in medicine, a growing abhorrence of war, and a growing movement to feed the poor of the world, overpopulation will become a more and more obvious issue. Whether human beings will be able to chose quality of human existence for all people over their selfish choices, based on sexual and instinctual urges, may well determine the survival and continued evolution of our species.

Practice

There is a current media blitz, waged by humanists and atheist organizations in the US. One of these promotes Greg Epstein's "Good Without God", an examination and exposition of humanism in modern society. This is all good. The more options of developing a constructive daily practice the better.

However, in this Facebook age, I do worry that a core piece of the message conveyed by Greg Epstein and others is being missed in the same way that a core piece of many religions is missed routinely. Humanism and religion are structures of intellectual conviction about the nature of the human experience and how best to make that experience worthwhile, moral, ethical, meaningful.

The practice of humanism or religion is the daily application of principles to reality in each human life. Some call this service, some call this mindful compassion, some call this practical morality. This practice piece, in my opinion, is the core value and worth of humanism or any religion.

The Facebook age is about information sharing, networking and virtual community. None of these is practice, as understood by most belief systems. These may lead to or support practice, but practice is something the individual does in real time with real people on real issues. Painting a disabled person's apartment is practice. Visiting hospice patients is practice. Volunteering in poor school systems is practice. Caring for your own elderly parents on a daily basis is practice. Teaching your children nonviolence and ethics is practice. Writing against injustice or for social progress to your political representatives is practice.

Virtual practice is not real practice.

Corruption

The Blue Dog Coalition is the dragging brake on social progress in Congress. I see them as the opportunists they obviously are.

These are politicians who are exploiting the Democratic Party in states where Republicans traditionally get elected. In fact, I suspect many of these conservatives of being Republicans in Democratic clothing. I blame the national leaders of the Democratic party for allowing these Right Wing politicians to pose as Democrats in order to achieve token electoral results.

While I have heard Howard Dean actively debating some of the Blue Dog camp, I am not convinced that the Democratic Party has not sold out to corporate America, especially Wall Street Banks and the Health Insurance Industry.

The necessary progressive agenda on the environment, energy independence, health care and education cannot proceed under the present conditions in Congress. The politicians in that body have conveniently subscribed to Neoliberal Economic Theory, as cover for their prostituting themselves to corporate America. In reality, they have been paid off or threatened by the wealthy interests in this country to not pass any legislation that will shift the tax burden back on those who own 90% of the wealth in the US. The wealthiest 5% of the US population are calling the shots, in other words. This means no progress to drastically improve the lives of the other 95% of the US population.

It is a strange experience for me to concede that the Right Wing extremists in the Republican Party are perhaps more genuine and less corrupt than the Neoliberal Blue Dogs. This does not compensate for their ignorance, of course, but it is a stunning realization that the Democratic Party, which once stood for transparency, fairness and economic equality, has gone over to the dark side of the corporatocracy.

Observing this is part of my practice. Speaking it is also part of my practice. Writing to those who represent me is also part of my practice. If all those who see the absurdity of the Blue Dog positions on progressive initiatives simply wrote to their Blue Dog representatives, things may well change for the better for all US citizens. The current trend to enrich the rich and further impoverish the vast majority can only lead to disaster for all.

Hoax

The recent 'balloon boy' hoax has uncovered the current gullible nature of a mass-media society. Millions were convinced that the live coverage was really about a boy in a shiny balloon. The TV outlets loved it. Sponsors were probably calling up as it was happening to get product placement onto those millions of screens.

Madoff was a hoax master. The guys at Enron were as well. How many hoaxes have been successful in this last decade of funny money, 'lent' to the gullible? Billions and billions of dollars worth. That's how many. We will all be paying for that gullibilty for years to come.

The deeper meaning for our culture is seldom addressed in the media. Why? The media live off your gullibility. If you weren't suggestible, there would be no commercials. There probably wouldn't be any broadcast TV.

So, why be so surprised when a demented parent abuses his paternity by enlisting his cherubic child in a fraud in order to get back on TV? It's just a symptom of a society polluted by commercial media.

My own practice has entailed not watching commercial television for the past 20+ years. I have found it tremendously liberating. I am happily clueless about American Idol, Survivor, Dancing with the Stars and the rest of the fluff they serve up to sell us more fluff. Taking the time wasted on watching commercial television, or television at all, opens a huge reservoir of useful time for expanding intelligence, education, relaxation, volunteering, exercise, creativity, community service, proactive parenting or anything else.

Service

This Sunday is National Secular Service Day, sponsored by secular humanist groups across the country. A wonderful idea. Hopefully, those who participate will be inspired to view human services in a new light.

George Bush the First is notable for trying to put a more philanthropic face on Reaganite materialism. After Reagan tore apart as much of the social service system in this country as he could, G.B. the Elder, tried to sell volunteerism as the remedy for all the societal chaos and suffering, caused by Reagan's policies. Well, as we can see from the urban pockets of murderous poverty and drug addiction, the amount of homeless people everywhere and the perversion of the public perceptions of what a socially-responsive government should be, the points-of-light theory of the Reaganites was bullshit.

Human services of good quality, delivered by highly qualified professionals, are superior to any hit-or-miss Republican model of volunteerism and 'social entrepreneurism'. There is no legitimate profit margin in caring for people properly and justly in a society which has vast differences in incomes. People cannot be itemized and made into commodity units. Life just doesn't work that way, as much as GAO CPAs, tax-resenting wealthy people and corrupt politicians would like to believe this.

Every day in this country dedicated, underpaid professionals work miracles with very little support in government-funded institutions: Public clinics, public hospitals, shelters, halfway houses, residential communities for the disabled, state mental institutions, child-protection agencies, public housing agencies. These service providers are my heroes. I have been fortunate enough to work shoulder-to-shoulder with some of them. I have profited greatly as a person by being among their ranks.

So, if you are inspired by a volunteer gig as a service-giver to a worthy cause this Sunday, make supporting the provision of government-funded services part of your practice by actively supporting politicians and officials who sponsor legislation and programs for the poor and needy. Do not begrudge tax dollars which go to helping people. Begrudge tax dollars which go to killing people, for whatever rationalization. Promote and show your willingness to pay for services to alleviate human suffering and to improve the general quality of life in this country.

Ethics

Peter Galbraith, son of a prominent American political family, has demonstrated the etiquette and importance of ethics in true democratic culture. He has been castigated for it by corrupted men in international seats of power.



The corrupt shrug at the practicality of corruption in others. This is the way of politics and the world of materialistic men without ethics and higher vision. Keeping their secrets overrides keeping their standards of ethical behavior. When exposed, the corrupt encircle each other defensively, like a pack of attacked wolves. The truthsayer is isolated, punished, expelled.

This behavior has infected all layers of civic culture and business culture in the U.S. and in the developed world. It is symptomatic of governmental and corporate reactions to overpopulation, stressed environments and stretched natural resources. Greed is a symptom of the awareness of the wealthy classes, usually well educated, to the impending environmental disasters on this planet.

Is this behavior conscious? I doubt it is as conscious as it is pervasive and infectious. Capitalism has no consciousness. Corporations have no definable consciousness. Accumulation of wealth drives capitalist corporations in the same way hunger drives a pack of wolves. However, the hunger of corporations is unmitigated. Corporations never have full bellies. They never sleep.

The practice of truthfulness in all things is a bad business model in a capitalist world. This is a crucial conflict for any person who wishes to practice mindfulness, truthfulness and compassion in his/her daily life. It is a moment-by-moment choice. Making the right choice and taking the right action in each moment over time builds practice. In my experience, living in this practice, while never easy or monetarily enriching, builds the strength and skills which also ensure living well within the realities of the world.

March

Tomorrow, October 11, 2009, may herald the reawakening of the national homosexual community in the U.S., after a long, exhausted slumber, caused by epidemic and the active Republican oppression, internal and external, of the last decade. Grass roots organizations have rallied, despite active discouragement by gay lobbyists, politicians and bureaucrats. Buses will roll down highways. Jet travelers will fill D.C. hotels. The tide of real, not virtual, community will come in to face the white marble indifference of the nation's capital in the name of universal human rights, guaranteed by federal law.

Notably, Barney Frank, U.S. Representative from Massachusetts, who is a homosexual man with a rather checkered past of his own, has posed as Pope of Gay Politics and issued a dictum that these young, energized people should stay home. Now, this is indeed surprising, especially in light of Mr. Frank's well publicized and one-time scandalous predeliction for young men. One would think he would be mingling happily among the marchers.

There have been other reactionary shouts against the Equality March from lobbyists and professional gay politicos. Is there really any question about their motivation? Gay rights and marriage rights, like AIDS services, have become a GLBT minority business with its own guilds and mafia-like gangs. Professional homosexuals are making their living in the nation's capital and in state capitals in the pursuit of 'equality for all'. Rather prosperous livings in some cases.

While I applaud the dedication of those who are selflessly pursuing a vocation in the name of universal freedoms and protections, I also need to remind the GLBT community that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Pop-culture heroes, the likes of Dan Savage and Andrew Sullivan, are very influential in shaping public opinion. However, few celebrities can resist the corruption of principles that occurs when money and fame become major motivators.

So, to you young and energetic marchers, I say, have a blast. Strut your stuff. And, pay little heed to the men behind the curtain of political respectability. You must meet in groups and bond to create a new vital human-rights movement. It is, after all, the American Way.

Prizes

What a difference a day makes. Or does it?

Recently I posted questions about the current U.S. government's commitment to nonviolence and universal justice. This morning I awoke to the good news that President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize. This is a great honor, despite the fact that the Nobel Peace Prize was withheld five times from Gandhi, considered by many to be the modern patron saint of nonviolence. It is a great honor, despite the fact that two other nominees, a women-rights activist in Afghanistan and a Congolese doctor, working with rape victims, risk their lives every time they step out their front doors in their own countries. I sincerely hope Mr. Obama uses this elevated stature as peacemaker in the eyes of the world's elite to foster an end to American aggression and violence against civilian populations.

A more stunning development occurred in the U.S. Congress in the last twenty four hours. The House of Representatives managed to include GLBT people in the Federal Hate Crime statutes through an inclusion in a defense budget bill. I find this rather ironic, but I will accept this as an attempt of those with a clear popular mandate on this issue to deliver. Well done. The snarling of the Right Wing is minimal. Perhaps a more amazing development.

However, the most encouraging news of the past twenty four hours for me was an NPR report that new Supreme Court justice, Justice Sotomayor, courageously questioned the 1911 statute that declared U.S. corporations to be persons under the law. Brava! This question is potentially the beginning of a challenge to the strangle-hold the corporations have on the entire political process in the United States.

My previously posted questions about political will against violence, aggression and injustice still stand. I am heartened by today's news. I have not abandoned my belief that Mr. Obama and some in Congress and other branches of government are sincere in their own hope for change. Yet, I hope for greater transparency. I hope for actual results.

Cowardice

Nonviolence and universal human justice take great courage and sacrifice. Cowardice is taking the easy, most conventional course against one's higher instincts and ethics.

Why is an American president with unusually high popular approval and international enthusiasm waffling on bringing an end to our wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq? Where is his loyalty based? Is it based in the people who elected him? Or is it based in the political class to which he belongs? The same questions can be asked of the Congress and all politicians in America.

Why is America rated 13th in international quality-of-life polls? Why is the American middle class being reduced to poverty and high debt to the wealthy who are 10% of the population? Why does the American government refuse to provide affordable health care to all its citizens?

Look to the banks. Look to the insurance companies. Look to the corporations in the energy and military-supply sectors. Look to the private contractors in the war zones.

Has cowardice led the leaders of America to bow to greed and corruption?

Prison

The United States has 5% of the world's population and 23.6% of the world's prison population.

What does that say about the success of our government? What does it say about our culture? What does that say about the grand concept of Freedom, touted by the hypocrites in Congress and in the military-industrial complex (corporatocracy)?

In the United States at the end of 2001, 10% of the population owned 71% of the wealth, and the top 1% controlled 38%. On the other hand, the bottom 40% owned less than 1% of the nation's wealth. Now, according to some estimates, the top 10% of the US population hold 90% of the nation's wealth. This is attributed largely to the economic policies of the Republican administration from 2001-2009 and the subsequent continuation of their monetary policy by the current administration.

Correctness

We live in an age of conformity in the US. iPhone drones mimic each other in conversationless groups on the street. Same clothes, same hair styles, same everything...on the surface. This is an outgrowth of the Terror Years, developed and exploited by the political Right after the events in Manhattan on September 11, 2001.

Within this conformity culture is another culture of political correctness, which is intolerant and oppressive. Political correctness has become the new hypocrisy. It is actually a repackaging of the superficiality of the post-War 1950s. No wonder that tongue-in-cheek 'Mad Men', a TV series about that era, is so popular.

I believe that truthfulness trumps political correctness in any situation both for its value and its potential to stimulate growth in people and relationships. Civility does not require political correctness. Civil, polite and sensitive truthfulness, whether conforming to popular mores or not, is the hallmark of a person who believes in the practice of compassion and mindfulness. Blind, vehement political correctness can be the refuge of thoughtless liars, who choose conformity to manipulate their environment for their selfish needs and purposes.

Education

Education in the US has been corrupted by capitalism. Public education is one victim of this corruption. Quality education is no longer an American civil right. The result is obvious and disastrous. Poverty, violence and crime are the inevitable net effects.

A person who wishes to practice any form of self improvement must be invested in personal education. However, American society is being steered away from valuable educational experiences by corporate interests who wish to capitalize on the dearth of easily accessible public (free) education. Education is being marketed as a commodity, not a process of growth and enlightenment with value of its own.

Professional education has led the way. Endless certifications and specialities have evolved in all forms of human service, education and public service. Initially, the concept of continuing education developed as a method to protect the consumer and taxpayer from inadequately prepared service providers. It has morphed into a bureaucratic industry which exists for its own sake and its own profits and endowments.

I would challenge anyone who would claim that professional services, public services and human services have actually improved as a result of this certification industry's growth and domination of workplaces. The deterioration in public services, human services and public education should be obvious to anyone with an IQ over 100, who can read.

Education for profit is evolving into bad, overpriced or inaccessibly priced education for everyone at a time when easy access to information is at a peak, thanks to the computer. The government has bought into this process hook, line and sinker. The neoconservative and libertarian cheapskates. who do not want to pay taxes for anything but killing people in other countries in the name of Freedom, have succeeded to keep the poor down and the middle class treading the treadmill of re-education and constant new re-certification, geared to salary grades, not knowledge or human understanding.

A nation based on true meritocracy would have free public education for all who qualify throughout the educational spectrum from kindergarten through doctorate.

Practice?

What is practice? My answer to that question is this: Practice is moment-by-moment, mindful, intentional and purposeful thought and behavior, guided by an informed, personal, ethical standard, based in love, compassion and peace.

Practice is awakened living. Practice is attempting to live every moment as a whole, human, conscious, peaceful being. I could go on, but I think I have made myself clear on my ideal concept of practice.

Practice goes beyond thought or belief or intention. Believing in ethics, believing in peace, believing in truth and justice is not enough. Practice is behavior, joined with these ideals. Right action with right thought in every situation from awakening to going to sleep.

I strongly believe that Christian practice, Buddhist practice, Jewish practice and Muslim practice, if motivated by compassion and peace, supersede their religious ideologies. In other words, practice supersedes dogma as a form of human growth and the promotion of general human well-being.

Secular humanist, or ethical humanist, practice is entirely harmonious with religious practice, when motivated by compassion and peace. Dogma is often the enemy, for dogma seeks to control human behavior and thought through ritualized and codified prescriptions.

The practitioner of peace and compassion needs no dogma. There are no magical ceremonies which can truly enhance the practice of mindfulness, truthfulness, compassion and nonviolence. Dogma divides. Compassion and nonviolence bring together. Practice is that simple, but it is also that difficult.

Nonviolence

I have learned a great deal from Asian philosophy and culture. I have not practiced martial arts, but I have studied their basic philosophy. Unfortunately, the Western interpretation and mutation of martial arts often blurs the lines between self defense to immobilize or fend off an aggressor and intentional or lethal harm to an aggressor.

There is power in living nonviolently, in my opinion. To firmly root oneself in nonviolent thought and nonviolent action takes practice. More practice for some than for others. Playing violent video games is not consistent with nonviolent practice. Supporting blood sports is not nonviolent practice. Joining the military is not nonviolent practice. Engaging in threatening speech or action is not nonviolent practice.

The key to nonviolent practice is the bridling of instinctive anger and conditioned anger. First, one must acknowledge the presence of anger in the moment. Then one must develop ways to deal with the anger immediately and consciously in the moment. Suppressing or repressing anger is not nonviolent practice. Acknowledging and channeling anger consciously and consistently is nonviolent practice. Exposing one's anger for what it is, accepting it and understanding its stimulus are essential conscious actions.

Many of us go through life experiencing habitual anger with roots in bad relationships in our pasts. This anger, if unexposed and left unattended to, will be an obstacle to many relationships. It will also inhibit personal growth.

Practice encompasses making conscious all the senses and all the emotions in our bodies. Then, moment by moment, mindful experience and channeling of our emotions builds a practice for personal growth. This is the central healing relationship we must build within ourselves before we can truthfully benefit the world around us in our practice as mindful, compassionate human beings in society.

Alcohol

I recently heard a broadcast on NPR about the rising incidence of alcoholism in young American female population. There is also a statistical rise in alcohol abuse in both sexes.

It is my opinion that one cannot effectively practice a life of mindfulness, truthfulness and compassion while also using alcohol on a daily basis. I have come to this opinion after many years of studying the issue and working with people in my nursing practice.

Alcohol alters hormonal and brain chemistry when used regularly in even moderate volumes. The human brain, while marvelous, is limited in its intoxicant-free state. The nature of a mindful, truthful and compassionate daily practice while living in the real world is arduous and unrelentlingy demanding, if one commits to practicing during all one's waking hours.

Many people function in the world while using alcohol in moderate and even large amounts of alcohol. But, practice is not about functioning. Practice is about being the best human being one can be at any given moment, no matter how stressful or demanding, with every ounce of one's potential. Any substance use or abuse, which leeches energy or capacity from the human body, is an antagonist to practice.

Identity

Identity can be the foundation of individual human development in early life, yet it can become a retardant to individual human growth in later life. Young people need to develop a sense of self in relation to their environment to grow out of the narcissism of adolescence to a socialized and independent adulthood. Recent psycho-social research in wealthy countries shows that this process is prolonged into the third decade of life as prosperity and longevity increase in societies.

In later life, the reflexive animal fear of change, stimulated by progressive experiences of loss, trauma and the unpredictable nature of life, often leads people to form a rigid self-concept: 'I don't do that. I wouldn't go there. I must have my this or that.' These collected 'I do's' and 'I don'ts' form an identity that can become a prison, which confines and stifles.

Liberation from identity comes with the understanding of the inevitability of death. I am not referring to the trite 'We are all dying' attitudes seen in popular media. Understanding the inevitability of my own death has come with touching death. I have been close to my own death twice. I have nursed hundreds of dying patients. I have washed bodies for burial. I have lowered the eyelids of people I have known and loved in life. This has brought me liberation from elements of my identity which were indeed narrowing my life.

Identity is best kept fluid in practice. Always expanding and sometimes contracting. Openness to the new, balanced with faithfulness to truth, mindfulness and compassion, allows for personal growth. A vital, growing person need not worry about identity, as long as his/her growth is based in responsible and loving practice toward the human beings in his/her life. I am quite sure that love of others, rather than identity, is the core of any mindful and compassionate practice.

Politicians

The recent death of Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts gave the awake observer some tremendous insights into politics, government as we know it, and politicians. The mindful and truthful have been testifying against politics, government and politicians since these phenomena were invented. And King Solomon would again shake his head and shrug if he were alive today. Nothing new under the Sun.

At a time when politicians in the majority are taking bribes (they call these 'campaign contributions') from the private health insurance industry to keep the American people slaves to premiums which support a Byzantine insurance bureaucracy, we have heard somber, solemn and totally hypocritical eulogies about the one Senator in Congress who has consistently supported universal health care with no buts or ifs.

'That's the way our system works, ' I have heard them say in defense of their hypocrisy and corruption. They speak of the interests of corporations as though they were of equal moral and ethical merit as the interests of the population, The People. This is not only lying. It is unconstitutional. We are supposed to be a democracy of the people, by the people and for the people. Corporations are not people. CEOs and lobbyists are people, but they are an infinitesimal minority of the people. Why are their interests being held above those of all the people?

Most troubling to me is the lack of counterpoint coming from the Kennedys themselves. In order to provide themselves the glory of a state funeral, it appeared, they have allowed the most despicable celebrities of the political class to jump on the funeral publicity train. The very people who have plotted to defeat the central pillar of Edward Kennedy's career, universal health care, rushed to fill well positioned church pews in Boston.

Death is not negotiable. It has no nuance. It is not debatable. It has no Right or Left. And neither does Truth.

If Americans could grasp and internalize their mortality, stripped of all the opiates of religion, plastic surgery, hormone enhancement, and television, perhaps they would demand Truth from their politicians. Perhaps they would demand that a Truthful legacy be granted to honor a man of the caliber of Senator Kennedy. Perhaps they would demand basic human rights, like health care, for all Americans and all the people in the world.

Struggle

Holy men are often depicted as masochists. I understand this. To stand for justice, truth, compassion, peace and fairness in life is somewhat masochistic in human societies which tend toward the hedonistic, selfish, greedy and bellicose.

The Middle Way offers a less masochistic alternative. Masochism Lite, perhaps.

Practice should always be embraced as simply that, practice. You will win some days and lose some days. But, practice is always a struggle against the animal roots of the human species, which can weigh down right action and right thinking in many situations. You see, humans, all humans, have animal brain elements (by 'animal' I mean 'non-human animal') and human brain elements. The frontal lobe brain elements can override the animal brain elements. In fact, as toilet-trained and clothed animals, we have started out with this type of override training fairly early in life. Education is the fuel of the human brain. But, the reptilian and basic mammalian brain elements are still in there and functioning without our conscious control much of the time.

So, every human's practice is a struggle on a very basic level. If we could all just talk about this struggle more and acknowledge it as our most basic commonality, perhaps that would be a great beginning of getting along, despite more superficial differences. This would entail being candid and frank about a whole range of instincts, compulsions, obsessions, bodily functions and desires.

Perhaps that is the place where many of us started our practices. By understanding and accepting the less human parts of ourselves, perhaps we can approach one another with greater humility and acceptance.

I struggle in my practice every day to deal with anger, reflexive reactions, libido, defensiveness, compulsions, anxieties and other physical impediments. This is the 'white noise' of my consciousness, through which I have been trying to hear the more human me, the compassionate me, the mindful me. Sometimes it's a out-and-out wrestling match, but, with time and daily commitment to trying, it has become a more gentle struggle, if I remember to stay in the moment.

Principles

I recently heard an author on the radio bemoaning her conscience and principles, instilled in her brain by parents, teachers and ministers. Her quest, apparently, is to become unprincipled. While I understood her resentment over certain sexist aspects of her conditioning, I think she is perhaps throwing the (well raised) baby out with the bath water.

While I no longer subscribe to my native Christianity, I do appreciate the one central commandment of the mythic Christ: Love thy neighbor as thyself, or, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That is the basic principle of all compassion and mindfulness. And, if followed, naturally leads to right thought and right action in its practitioner.

Perhaps this is the key to secular humanist morality and ethics. No harsh paternal figure required. No flames of hell as deterrent. No heavenly virgins as reward.

Being human in the most mindful and compassionate way in the moment when alone or with others as a practice is perhaps a higher standard of behavior than the standard of religions which offer ritual absolution for routine, mindless, hateful behaviors without a requirement of subsequent intellectual or behavioral changes.

My principles are my practice. If I proceed with intentional mindfulness and compassion through each day to the best of my ability, I feel it will be unnecessary to fret over the dictates of any religion, social trend or social pressure, which may be at odds with being a truthful, loving and open member of the human family.

Monks

When I was a teenager, I fantasized about becoming a monk. I thought it would be the solution to all my problems. I could retreat from a world I found harsh and inhospitable. I could dedicate my days to meditation, prayer for others, prayer for peace, perhaps a little farming too. How idyllic those fantasies were.

My otherwise devoutly Catholic parents would not sign my permission papers when I wanted to join the Jesuits at 16. It wasn't because they thought being a Jesuit was a bad thing. They preferred that I, their possession, become a medical doctor. In retrospect, they did me an unintentional favor.

How compassionate a person could I have been if I sealed myself off from the experiences of making a living, working in the capitalist system, paying rent, developing a career, working as an openly gay man in my jobs as a teacher, a nurse, an administrator? How would I have known what it means to be poor without a 'big daddy' organization to back me up? How would I have developed myself out of my narrow Catholicism to a broader humanism while being dependent on The Church for my bread and butter? Would I have been able to avoid being corrupted by the mainstream status that comes with a clerical collar?

Those who practice in organized and isolated intentional communities may reach enlightenment, I suppose. But, the historic Buddha, Jesus, Moses, Mohammed all lived in the world as individuals. They all pulled away from the conventions of their times to seek Truth. The monasteries and madrassas came later. In fact, one can see these intentional communities and schools as symptoms of de facto humanists' frustration with human society's persistent evils. In this light, I see them as symbols of a kind of surrender, a kind of failure.

While organized groups of devout moralists managed to transmit valuable cultural elements through the ages, they failed to instill practice in the populations they came from, with few exceptions. Practice in the real world with real worldly responsibilities and stresses is hard. But, the rewards of this practice are commensurately great. By practicing in the world, one can develop the strength to aid others in their practice. In this way, potentially, humanist practice can spread through a society over time.

Think of a world where every human being lives in mindfulness with compassion. Think of a world where speech is always based in truth. Think of a world where everyone prizes the act of giving over the act of seeking individual gratification. This would be a world of practice. This kind of world can only be achieved when all its people are just as concerned for the happiness and health of all as they are concerned for the happiness and health of themselves. My mind holds one prayer: it is a plea to future human generations to achieve such a world.

Choices

In every moment, the mindful and compassionate person must balance identity and humanity. This is practice.

Racism is a choice of identity over humanity. Sexism, including hatred of people for differing sexual orientations, is a choice of identity over humanity. Religious intolerance is a choice of identity over humanity. Ignoring the needs of the working poor, uninsured, mentally ill, addicted, homeless or any other peaceful human beings in need is a choice of identity over humanity.

Choosing peace is often a choice of humanity over identity. Choosing charity is often a choice of humanity over identity. Choosing humility is often a choice of humanity over identity.

Continuing to thoughtlessly choose identity over humanity in moment-by-moment living creates a bad personal environment, which will eventually alienate and marginalize. The evil of the world is built on countless individual choices of identity over humanity.

Walking the Middle Path by attending to a daily practice, committed to peace, mindfulness and compassion, entails balancing identity with humanity in every moment. Rather than seeking to change one's humanity, the seeker works relentlessly to change one's identity to harmonize with one's humanity.

Reactionary

One of the great lessons of human history is related to the swings of cultures and political movements caused by reactionary retaliation of one regime against another. These reactionary movements create great suffering and are often associated with wars, pogroms and social retrogression.

Large reactionary movements are a reflection of individual reactionary process. It seems a human characteristic to conform up to a breaking point, whereupon the conformist becomes a reactionary, once his/her tolerance has been exhausted. Then he/she embarks on an extreme counter position to try achieve some perceived equilibrium. This tug o' war can eventually achieve moderation of course, but the collateral damage to relationships and community is often devastating.

I believe our current mass-media culture is caught in a reactionary cycle. Usually, this is described as partisanship. Currently, the two-party system in the U.S, appears to be the tool of forces intent on manipulating and diverting the greater population through partisan reactions in order to protect and foster the socioeconomic domination by the few, who greedily hold the wealth of the country.

The unproductive nature of this process is best illustrated currently by the organized demonstrators who disrupt public meetings with government officials who are trying to develop universal health care systems in the U.S.. The demonstrators are apparently poorly educated and economically challenged supporters of the far Right. They are ginned up by propaganda on Rightist radio or by Rightist operatives. Perhaps they are paid to act in disruptive and antisocial ways at these meetings. This methodology, lifted from Mein Kampf, is a tried and true method of those at the top who wish to sabotage any political movement in a society with a growing impoverished and uneducated class.

Their reactionary tendencies, motivated most probably by racial, religious and social prejudices, are being used to defeat a political movement which would vastly improve their own lives. Their lack of education and information makes them vulnerable to be used in this way. Their frustration and economic dysfunction produce the sense of deprivation and entitlement which is the grist of the demagogue's propaganda mill.

How can this cycle of politics and history ever be disrupted? How can the human family become a functional force for health, education and general wellbeing on the planet?

If a society insures unlimited educational opportunities and health promotion for its citizens, it will begin on the path to societal wellness and progression. This is simple common sense. But, capitalism is not built on simple common sense. Overpopulation does not allow for simple common sense approaches to the most basic human needs.

The individual can begin a practice of being proactive vs. reactive in his/her own life. Perhaps, if enough individuals practice proactively over time, we can start a wave of more generalized proactive practice in society. Proactive practice entails guarding against dichotomy and polarity when approaching human issues. Proactive practice is the Middle Way or Middle Path.

Narratives

I have been in several new social situations recently. The word, narrative, came up in one of those situations. My mind instantly clicked on that word as very relative to my recent social experiences.

Prior to one of these situations, I found myself uncharacteristically thinking about what I would answer to certain questions I might be asked. I say 'uncharacteristically', because some years ago I decided to greet each potential situation as a blank slate by simply showing up and by not thinking about the situation before it even became a situation. However, this appointment potentially related very closely to my practice's foundations. I realized my speculation about the meeting was really an inventory of myself and my self perception.

Happily, I recognized that I had only one honest answer to any question which could be asked of me: The simple truth of my being in the moment of the question would be my answer. I experienced immediate relaxation of mind and body with this recognition.

Narratives, resumes, c.v.'s, portfolios are all condensations of our skills and accomplishments. Too often, these narratives are confused with identities. Unfortunately, they are most often based in the past. To anchor your identity to the past is stifling. While those things you have done may inspired confidence in your abilities, they are not a true measure of who you are or your human potential. In fact, many such narratives are tainted with minor fictional enhancements and distortions, while others do not begin to express the fullness and value of a life.

My practice entails being the truth of everything all I have been, I have done, all I have mastered and all I have failed to do in my life. Being that truth creates its own spontaneous narrative, when one is requested. This is known in many disciplines as being able to live in the moment, in the past and in the future simultaneously. In other words, experiencing having been, being and becoming as one. And, from this state, one may proceed on the journey to enlightenment.

In my opinion, enlightenment is not an accomplishment. It is also an unending work in progress. And the journey to enlightenment can be lit my a simple lantern: The lantern of my own truthfulness, mindfulness and compassion in every moment to the best of my ability.

Perversion

Sexuality, as an abstract concept or personal identity, is itself a perversion of a simple bodily process. Feeling the need to define oneself according to one's sexual needs or actions is a symptom of the loss of our humanity. It is, perhaps, symptomatic of population pressures, dehumanization of the industrial/electronic age, the new corporate fascism, the new resurgence of orthodox deity worship, and/or any number of other modern stresses combined.

People who are born at the ends of the sexual-preference bell curves are forced by the prejudices and hatreds of those in the middle to assert their difference politically as a form of self defense. In a post-Kinsey age, this speaks to the depth of the U.S. society's sexual dysfunction.

The need to have sexual stimulation and release is simply a human and an animal need. It is anatomic, biochemical, hormonal. If modern humans managed their bowels in the same way they manage their sexual organs, a vast portion of the human population would die of terminal constipation.

In short, sex of all kinds, like food, has been packaged and manipulated for profit and social control by capitalists and politicians. So, it is becoming increasingly difficult to have a sexually healthy life by rejecting myths and fears, fostered by media advertisers working for the powers who wish to control and/or sell sex.

In my own practice, I have grown to appreciate my sexual needs in concert with my other bodily needs. A central part of this process is the acceptance of responsibility for my own sexual needs and satisfaction of those needs. After all, do I require another person to attend to my adult needs to eat, to sleep, to digest, to eliminate? No. And, do I feel guilt when I eat to satisfy hunger, sleep to avoid fatigue, relax after a meal to digest, or lock the bathroom door behind me? No.

When we see ourselves as powerless to satisfy our basic physical needs by moderation, regulation and conscious practice, we lose our humanity and our freedom. When we deny ourselves healthy practices to satisfy the will of others, we shrink as human beings and sacrifice our own personal evolution. As with all areas of life, the person who is healthy in his/her own sexual practices has so much more to give to others when given the opportunity to share.

Plutocracy

US citizens are allowing themselves to be ruled by a plutocracy. The current whining of the Democrats in Congress that 'the votes aren't there' for universal health care for American citizens, when there are a majority of Democrats in the Congress, is the open admission that we no longer have a two-party democracy in the US. We have a plutocracy: Government by the wealthy for the interests of the wealthy.

The recent 'solutions' to the US 'financial crisis' should have been evidence enough for those with eyes and a brain. The solutions entailed propping up the wealthy who had raped the financial system by defrauding the middle class with bogus loans. The middle class is broke. The wealthy bankers are still flush. The government of the US continues to hold the hands of the rich, while the middle class and the poor struggle on their own.

The health care debate is the biggest tip-off of all. First, there is no debate. Universal health care was never really on the table. Now they are force=feeding the public with universal coverage. They are equating the two concepts in an attempt to fool the public into thinking that a compromise has been reached. This is a patent lie. There was never a legitimate debate.

Universal health care would mean that any US citizen or legal resident would have the ability to access health care (medical assistance or treatment) anywhere in the US at any time it was required without worry about being bankrupted by that need. In other words, medical care as a human and civil right.

Universal health coverage keeps up the illusion that medical care is a commodity, not a human and civil right. This is the position of the insurance industry and the pharmaceutical industry, the wealthy interests who obviously own our Congress lock, stock and barrel. So, the Congress will keep funneling customers to the insurance companies. More than ever, since every US citizen will be forced to buy private insurance in order to get medical treatment.

Perhaps it is time to stop mooning over well-meaning President Obama. He has surrendered to these interests by giving Congress the go-ahead to sell the American citizenry down the river to the lobbies who have made this country the mess it is right now. Perhaps it is time to get involved, to write your Congressional delegation. Demand your human right to health and well being. Do not surrender your rights as a human being to the insatiable greed of the wealthy.

Practice is fighting greed and stupidity for your own humanity's sake. Compassion is doing the same for all humanity's sake.

Who?

Who is the greater racist? The person who admits seeing race and to reacting to it, despite his best efforts and wishes to change the impact of racism in his own life, OR the person of any race who so prides himself on his race that he insists upon being treated exceptionally because of his race?

Who cannot see race, if he/she has functioning vision? Who is more trustworthy? Is it the person who openly acknowledges the unfortunate and undesirable effects of race on his/her perceptions and reactions? Or is it the person who says he/she is 'race blind' and runs away from discussions about race?

Who truly cares about race once a sincere human connection is made between two human beings? What keeps people from being sincere with each other? Is the problem racism? Is the problem anger? Is the problem fear? Is the problem pride? Or is the problem simply one of bad personal habits that get in the way?

Practice is all about challenging and changing personal habits one relationship at a time. A society comprised of people who believe in their responsibility to practice personal growth and compassion cannot be racist, sexist, homophobic or violent. Practice is living through positive change by taking chances and practicing peace.

Visibility

This blog has recently been listed on Boston.com's Blog List under Politics and Media . While I have no understanding of how that has occurred, I am appreciative that someone took my words to heart enough to honor them with a visible place on Boston. com. I thank whomever that may be.

I have striven generally to make my personal practice invisible to the casual observing eye. This in itself is an element of practice. Unlike the practitioner of the ritualistically religious, I wear no vestments or monk's robes. Like the current character on Showtime, Nurse Jackie, I have worn a uniform, which has announced an element of my practice, helping the sick with the most skill and compassion I can muster. And, frankly, I have more in common with Nurse Jackie than with Pope Benedict.

Practice is best beheld and evaluated in the eye of its practitioner, I feel. To truly practice compassion and personal development through enlightened and liberated consciousness as a public activity takes excruciating discipline and consciousness at all times. Few are able to fulfill that demand. Gandhi, perhaps, the documented Christ, and the living Buddhas of various traditions. I do not aspire to the major league of practice. I'll be happy to stay with the farm team.

This practice of opening a crack in the door to my own practice has been a formative and demanding effort for me. To carefully consider my own truth, to challenge my own assumptions, to reveal my own process are all important to me and require meditation, self-criticism and a hard look at my own life/actions. I am seldom satisfied with anything I see in that process, but I have resolved to share those aspects of my practice as well, when I think they may be helpful to a reader.

So, when I suddenly became aware of the light of greater visibility of this blog, I greeted the news with mixed feelings. First, I am truly pleased at the possibility that a person may find these words, read them and gain nourishment for their own practice from them. Yet, I am also aware that this visibility may bring even greater challenges to me in my practice. Will I be equal to those challenges? Will I answer comments thoughtfully and fairly, even if they challenge the very foundations of my beliefs and my practice itself? Will I continue to devote the time this blog may demand with more readers?

Those questions will be there waiting. They will be part of this practice of writing this blog from now on. Another example of how every new thing in life adds to one's practice, enriches and challenges it. Practice is life. Life is change.