Lies

The Truth is, of course, an abstract concept. I mean The Truth of a situation or an action contains many aspects. There is subjective truth, which is what the participants in a certain situation or action perceive as what really occurred or motivated them. There is the objective truth of what an observer or listener perceives about the same situation or action. This is obviously at the basis of Justice. Sorting out where the subjective and objective truths converge to create The Truth, in order to determine responsibility and accountability.

To live mindfully and compassionately in society requires constant assessment of what is truthful and what is a lie. The worst lies are those we tell ourselves. The more lies we tell ourselves, the less connected we are to The Truth of life and The Truth of being an evolving person.

One of the most common lies which we tell ourselves over and over again is a denial of our mortality. This particular lie is extremely corrupting to the human consciousness. To maintain it, people go to great lengths. The plastic surgery industry and the pharmaceutical industry can bank on that.

When I made the conscious decision forty-seven years ago to come out as a gay man, I took my first feeble steps toward the light of Truth in my life. It was a hard road then, and it continues to be a hard road now at times. Yet, I feel that I can see where I am going on that road. That makes each footstep a little easier.

Embracing the lies leads to much more confusion and pain in life. Lies require so much damn maintenance. Sharing in the lies of others layers blinding insulation over one's whole life to the point that any truth seems unreachable without a major breakthrough. For some, I suppose, this is what happens when they are 'born again'.

Taking the first step to The Truth begins in this moment, and the next, and the next. This is called practice.

Refuge

There is a lot of attention being paid to the subject of immigration in the so-called developed world. Economic refugees, or migrant workers, are claiming a right to cross borders illegally to earn money to support a life based on ignorance and poverty in their home countries. Political refugees in the U.S. are just as likely to be aligned with fascist regimes as with opposition groups seeking social justice. All lines are blurred. Overpopulation makes it impossible for governments to justly consider each case with the compassion it deserves. Borders are porous due to air travel and the sheer numbers of people willing to break immigration laws.

The refuge these people seek is elusive. The lawfulness they subvert by illegally entering a more civilized society is key to maintaining the civility of that society. So, these refugees subvert the quality of the idealized society to which they flee. Rarely do these refugees return to their home countries for the purpose of effecting real social and political change. More often, they attempt to create a microcosm of their root culture within the society which grants them refuge. This too subverts the cultural integrity of the very place which they seek as refuge. After all is said and done, their root culture is what drove them to seek refuge in the first place. The propaganda of corporations which rely on these people for cheap labor would have you believe that this behavior is culturally enhancing by adding to the hyped diversity factor. In reality, alienated, undereducated and impoverished people have very little to give to their environment. They are more focused on getting than giving. They have to be to survive.

The only real refuge from poverty, cruelty and ignorance is education. If developed countries estimated and spent the expense which refugees incur on building and staffing schools in underdeveloped regions of underdeveloped countries, potential refugees could be given the tools to turn their native lands into decent places to live over time. Accepting and enabling refugees to remain ignorant for the purpose of enslaving them for financial gain is not commendable.

For those in developed countries who are in need of refuge, the solution is the same. Education, combined with hard work. I myself was born in a developed country to relatively uneducated and intolerant people. I found refuge in my schooling, though it was extremely difficult for me to overcome learning and cultural disabilities, to which I was born. Running away to become an uneducated and underpaid worker (slave) or a dependent on someone else never occurred to me. I suppose I owe it to my upbringing that I never felt that escape on that level was an option. I stayed in my community, endured violence and derision, worked like a dog, and managed to learn a great deal about life and people, as well as science and literature. But now, at an age when I often need refuge from pain, disease and social discomfort, I can and do rely on my ability to learn, to immerse myself in study and research with a goal of improving my life, despite adversity. That refuge is part of my daily practice.

Destroyers

I am not at all proud to be a human being, despite the ancient Buddhist passages which encourage believers to be thankful for being born into human existence, as some pinnacle of the Earth's biologic pyramid. Human beings have been destroying the planet like a virus since they developed the capacity to outwit prey. Long before the Nazi and Soviet thugs, human beings have followed one maniac after another who have proclaimed human superiority or human ownership of the planet. Then, of course, they go on to claim the superiority of their particular favorite kind of human. Other species have been trampled, massacred and made extinct with great abandon and a sense of majestic entitlement. In this media-dominated age, we see anthropomorphized animals in cartoons, now full length movies to indoctrinate the young. Penguins, lions, fish....they all deliver the same message. Humans are basically good and the trials of Nature are intrinsically bad. Even 'green' types are suckers for this crap.

In my world view, homo sapiens is one predatory species with no moral superiority to any other predatory species. Men kill each other. Some humans kill their young. We overpopulate when we have enough food to eat. We thrive selfishly at the expense of other species. We eat other species. The major religions contribute to this insane assertion of the superiority of humans. They go out of their way to absolve humans for being ruthless exploiters of the planet in the name of their deities, otherwise known as Imaginary Friends.

Personal human evolution entails understanding the place of the human species in planetary ecology. And, yes, that means study and intellectual discipline. If a person really studies biological and physical science to the point of comprehension, then half the road to personal enlightenment has been travelled. The philosopher or theologian who has no clue about science is simply a con man.