Knowing

Knowing oneself is difficult.

It is the cornerstone of practice.

Always playing roles is poison.

It erodes the center of the soul.

Knowing oneself requires strength.

Looking at the unpleasant is hard.

Working to change it is harder.

Not changing at all is death.

Knowing oneself brings true joy.

Accepting the beauty is the gift.

Nurturing it is true evolution.

Ignoring it enforces the unpleasant.

Knowing to change and grow is practice.

Truth

Jeremiah Wright, the much maligned friend of Mr. Obama, is a speaker of the truth. And I do not mean HIS truth only. Part of the popular furor he has raised is akin to the whining resistance of a sleepy child who resents being roused from its blissful sleep. A greater part of the cynical negative propaganda against Wright comes from the fascist Right Wing of the Republican Party.

The poor are poorer than ever in the US. The Iraq War is an abomination. The Bush administration is corrupt and evil. The Congress is impotent. Racism is alive and prospering in the US in many different forms. The people are suffering at the hands of the greedy, wealthy and powerful, whether those privileged classes are aware of it or not. The rich are richer than ever and paying less of their share of the public funds.

The truth hurts those who choose to deny it or ignore it. Wright is simply saying what should be said regularly on the public airwaves and in the press. Those forums have been kidnapped by the Right Wing.

It is easy to dismiss Wright as a crackpot. His style is histrionic. But Martin Luther King would be saying the same things if he were alive today. King's style was also histrionic. Jeremiah Wright is a brave man to follow in King's footsteps. Fascist assassins have good aim. Cowardly Liberals too readily defer to the Right Wing's brutality.

Practice is difficult and dangerous. It does not make you popular.

Economics

The human economy reflects the folly of the human denial of the human condition. In general, human beings live their lives irresponsibly. This is grossly obvious in the state of the planet, which human beings continue to consciously pollute and abuse every day.

The vast ignorance and denial of the inevitable consequences of overpopulation among human beings of all social and educational levels is obvious in the lack of discussion of overpopulation by world leaders, scientists and educators. This too is irresponsible.

The economics of the human species are less science than manipulation of markets and money to perpetuate the power of the few at the expense of the many. The current turmoil in the global human economy is evidence of this reality.

Humans spend their lives trying to balance their conditioned denial and religious illusions with the reality of mortality and their own irresponsible attitudes toward their own species and the rest of the planet. These contradictions will not be balanced. By letting this farcical play fall apart, the human mind awakens. By embracing mortality and taking a determined path to make the world a better place with daily right action and right thought (practice), human Being can be happy Being, liberated from the pain of constant uncertainty and illusion.