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.