Work

What constitutes hard work? Does sitting at a desk in front of a computer constitute hard work? Does attending meetings in board rooms constitute hard work? Does counting money and scheming to make more constitute hard work? Does bathing an invalid constitute hard work? Does cleaning kitchens, bathrooms and public spaces constitute hard work? Does carrying heavy objects all day constitute hard work? Does building or maintaining a building constitute hard work? I hear the words "work hard" and "hard work" bandied about quite a bit in the media. Usually these words are used in relation to making money by those who have made a lot of it. Does making peace rather than war constitute hard work? Does giving rather than taking constitute hard work? Does preventing your own fear from being harsh or inhuman to others constitute hard work? I find it very hard work to do that which is more compassionate or more righteous thing over that which comes easily to me. That is why it takes conscious practice on my part to choose hard work over habit or impulse.

Epicureans

This is a time of obesity in the consumer world and hunger in the laborer world. Is it any wonder that American cable television boasts hour after hour about expensive food consumption and preparation? The elite, who have captured and dominate the international television industry, are obsessed with material pleasure and excess. This is not new, of course, but the elite of today number in the millions. They are served by billions who labor harder and harder as their overall compensation dwindles as a proportion of planetary resources and production. Greed is in. The Epicureans flaunt their devotion to pleasure, while always talking on TV about how they have paid their dues or worked their way up. This is myth in most cases. The masses are lulled into submission with false promises of open access to the upper levels of society drilled into their hypnotized TV-medicated brains. They stuff down their anger with starch and fat. There is no happiness in obesity or hunger. There is ultimately no happiness in attachment to pleasure and excess. There is happiness in the practice of moderation and living to promote economic equality and justice for everyone.

Christmas

Rituals like Christmas, it must be remembered, are the products of the past. These rituals bind us to the past. Do we want to be bound to the past, or do we want to look to the future? Christmas, in particular, stems from an ancient celebration/exhortation of the return of the sun for the new year in many pre-Christian cultures, primitive cultures, I might add. The reality is that every new year celebrated also is a year closer to our death. In light of that reality, I think jolly fat men in red could be replaced by sober men in black. My practice at Christmas is not based in disdain for fellowship and good will, when I refuse to engage in materialistic symbolism. My practice at Christmas is actually based in the observation of all mortality, renewal of spirit and the celebration the exemplary human ability to cooperate in peace, even in a time dominated by those who prosper by hatred and war.