Buddhism, Hinduism, Karma, Fate and Predestination.

Whatever decision we think we are making is actually being made for us, because the decision is the end result of a thought and we have no control over the arising of the thought.

-Ramesh Balsekar

James: Upon first reading this I agreed with it but now that I've been contemplating upon it for awhile I'm wondering, "Do we really have no control over the arising of the thought? Don't we have control over what we think?"

I realize that karma plays a role in our thought process but this quote seems to confuse karma. It rather seems fatalistic and seems to lean toward teaching predestination and from what I've learned Buddhism doesn't teach fatalism or predestination:

It is quite often the case that we find people misunderstanding the idea of karma. This is particularly true in our daily casual use of the term. We find people saying that one cannot change one’s situation because of one’s karma. In this sense, karma becomes a sort of escape. It becomes similar to predestination or fatalism. This is emphatically not the correct understanding of karma. It is possible that this misunderstanding of karma has come about because of the popular idea that we have about luck and fate. It may be for this reason that our idea of karma has become overlaid in popular thought with the notion of predestination. Karma is not fate or predestination.

James: I'd really enjoy hearing your thoughts on this quote, fate, karma, predestination and how it relates (or not) to Buddhism. Part of this could be a difference between Buddhism and Hinduism as this quote came from a daily Hindu wisdom email. And while I don't know Hinduism as well as Buddhism it was my understanding that Hindus don't believe in predestination either.

~Peace to all beings~

Prajnaparamita-Hridaya Sutra Mantra.

I've been looking for a reliable representation of the Heart Sutra's mantra (om gate gate paragate parasamgate bodhi svaha) in either Sanskrit, Pali, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Hindi, etc. I have been doing extensive research but haven't found much. I found the version written above in the Siddham script of Sanskrit (At least I think the above script is Siddham).

However, I need a verification of it's validity and accuracy because eventually I want this section of the Heart Sutra tattooed on my forearm and don't want to get the wrong thing tattooed on me. Can anyone verify the Siddham script Sanskrit version or give me a version written in any of those other Asian languages that I mentioned above? I also think I found a version written in Japanese kanji (below)--can anyone confirm it as being the Heart Sutra mantra?The other question I have is that the characters above seem like Chinese and not Japanese but I'm not an expert to say the least. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Bowing...

~Peace to all beings~

Stop the gag order. Lobbyists are protected by the First Amendment.

Free speech would be easy if it only applied to popular people saying popular things. But that's not the case. Our First Amendment protections are most urgent and fragile when they apply to the unpopular, the dissident, and the public villain of the day. Which brings me to lobbyists.

It's easy to dislike lobbyists. (Full disclosure: I happen to be one. Here's a link to my public registration.) Politicians vilify them, blame them for lots that is wrong in Washington, many times justified. Crooks like Jack Abramoff and the occasional bribe-taking Congressman smear the profession. The public hates inside influence-peddling, sees the potential for abuse, and insists on limits. So, as a lobbyist, I am happy to be regulated, and I'm ready to comply with all the disclosures of clients, contacts, and interests, and don't even mind the political pokes.

But the latest missive from President Obama's White House, a Memorandum dated March 20, 2009 on "Ensuring Responsible Spending of Recovery Act Funds," is a literal gag order to be carried out by Federal agency officials. It truly crosses the line.

Let's be clear. Lobbying is not a social evil. It is a public good protected by the First Amendment -- both as "freedom of speech" and as the right of the people "to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." By recent count, there are over 50,000 registered lobbyists representing a dizzying range of causes and interests, from good government and safe drugs to individual corporations and local governments. Bad actors aside (see Joseph Keppler's classic view, "The Bosses of the Senate," above), they keep Congress informed, give groups around the country an effective voice, and engage in public discourse essential to decision-making in a democracy.

In modern Washington, a competent lobbyist is as essential to navigating the complex maze of bureaucracy and politics as a competent lawyer or accountant is to any individual trying to run a business, buy a home, or file their taxes. Denying people access to a lobbyist amounts to stripping them of their voice.

And that's precisely what the new Obama memo does. In so many words, it requres agency officials, in any meeting or phone call regarding the Stimulus Package, to tell any lobbyist in the room or on the call to get out, hang up, or shut up -- "the lobbyist may not attend [the meeting] or participate in the telephonic or in-person contact, but may submit a communication in writing." (See Section 3(b))


Message to the public? When it comes to seeking Stimulus Package funds, you are on your own. You are denied representation. You have no right to have someone speak for you. The impact? Big corporations, with high-paid, experienced advocates on their payrolls as officers or in-house staff (not subject to any rules on lobbying), will easily roll over any small business that gets in the way.


This is overkill, taking a popular concept and extending it to a destructive conclusion. I hope the Obama White House will re-think it. To my mind, even speaking as a lobbyist, change is still good.

Cafebabel: Anti-Mafia and Slovakian Elections

Did two more translations for cafebabel today. The first piece was about the anti-mafia manifestation in Italy last weekend, where hundreds of people marched through the streets of Naples on a national day of protest and commemoration for its victims organised by the Italian Libera association (click here*).

The second translation, much longer and more interesting, was on the subject of the first round of the Slovakian presidential elections, which were thought to have been a foregone conclusion but now have become interesting.

The incumbent president and favourite for re-election, Ivan Gašparovič, did not command an overall majority in the first round as was expected so as a result, he will face a second round of elections on 4th April.

Here he faces Iveta Radičová, who is the countries' most successful female politician as she is the first woman to reach the second round of a presidential election and one glance at her campaign strategy evokes instantly that of Barack Obama - and we all know how he fared... To read more on this story read my translation*

This now takes me to 49 in total, click here* for more...

We all Make Mistakes.

We all make mistakes from time to time. Life is about learning to make our mistakes less often. To realize this goal, we have a policy in our monastery that monks are allowed to make mistakes. When the monks are not afraid to make mistakes, they don’t make so many.

–Ajahn Brahm, from Opening the Door of Your Heart (Lothian Books)

James: (I am not a teacher and the following are my thoughts and mine alone). I have often found that perfectionism is a common obstacle to many people. Striving for perfection is in my view another form of desire because we refuse to accept that we are already perfect as all has Buddha nature. Perfectionism asserts that mistakes are negative and signs of failure.

In reality we can not make progress without making mistakes. If we adjust our lives so that we won't make many mistakes then we greatly hinder our chances and opportunities to peel away the layers of karma to reveal the perfect jewel of enlightenment. Not to mention loosing out on a lot of the joys of life out of a fear of making mistakes. But guess what?--everyone makes mistakes and suffers pain.

Even Buddha suffered aches and pains after his enlightenment. He understand that, "Enlightened people do not cease to experience the pain of existence. They only stop creating illusions that amplify that pain and cause new suffering." However, If we compare ourselves say to advanced students or the great teachers then we will come up feeling inadequate and get discouraged to where it would be easy to give up the Dharma thinking we will never become who they are.

The key I think is to set modest goals and realize that the middle-path isn't a short-cut or express lane but rather a journey that will most likely take many, many, many lives to fulfill. There is no reason to be discouraged by this, however, because instead it takes the pressure off of feeling like we have to realize enlightenment in this life, which often brings frustration, low self-esteem and discouragement. Of course we should strive to do our best and live the Dharma as best we can but mistakes will happen and that is simply apart of the journey. Step by step, moment by moment, enlightenment unveils itself.

When we refuse to accept imperfection then we set ourselves up for disappointment and suffering. On the contrary when we accept that things don't have to be perfect to be good or beneficial then we can stop worrying so much and enjoy being perfect in our imperfections!! I think that is one of the reasons why the teaching on the present moment is so important because it is keeping goals realistic. Thus the teaching of "before enlightenment I chopped wood and carried water and after enlightenment I chopped wood and carried water."

Before enlightenment perhaps we chopped wood and carried water with a constant thought stream of self-judgments such as: "I should be chopping wood faster," or "Look at how much water is splashing over the side of the bucket, I must be worthless at this job." Little perhaps do we realize that like a famous story goes--the water splashing over the side of the bucket could be watering flowers down below, flowers that we did not notice because our focus was on trying to be perfect.

After enlightenment chopping wood and carrying water is perfection already expressed because the focus is no longer on doing the task perfectly but on simply doing and fully experiencing the task itself as it unfolds.

~Peace to all beings~

Thanks to Mel Brooks for historical preservation

Famed comedian and film maker Mel Brooks has taken on the worthy cause of saving the word "Schmuck," which is quickly disappearng from American usage. Do you know what the work actually means? Click here to see the background on Mel Brooks's campaign. Please check it out and send a contribution.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm sorry that I haven't been writing lately. I have been getting ready for a big trip to Indiana and Chicago to visit family. I'll be back in about a week with some new posts. I hope you are all doing well and I'll miss you!!

Oh and Michael? The one who put their name into the hat for the Zen enso t-shirt? You won the contest awhile back but haven't heard from you. If you don't reply to this post by the time I get back I'll have to give it to someone else. So I'll leave you with a quote to chew on:


Listen to the cicadas in treetops near the
waterfall;
See how last night's rains have washed away
all grime.
Needless to say my hut is as empty as can
be,
But I can offer you a window full of the most
intoxicating air !

-Ryokan, Zen monk of Japan

James: O.k., I'm off. Be well in your practice.

I bow to you all....

~Peace to all beings~

An AIG contest: How do you spell LYNCH MOB?

For any legal eagles out there today (especially any like me who are kicking yourself for not getting your NCAA tournament office pool bracket card in on time), here's a contest putting your fine skills to the test:

Just answer the following question: How many reasons can you find to argue that the attached bill, which passed the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., today by a vote of 328 to 93, is UNconstitutional? You get extra credit for violations of the Bill of Rights in particular.

The bill is called: "A Bill to Impose an Additional Tax on Bonuses Received from Certain TARP Recipients." Here's the link: Click Here for the text and Here for the official summary. It's just five short pages, but with lots to pick from. The bill was introduced by Congressman Charles Rangel, Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee joined by a long list of co-sponsors, proud patriots all. It's aimed at an insurance company called AIG that's taken lots of money from the government during the past few months. Maybe you've heard of them?

Have fun. I'll post some of the best entries that come in over the next few days. (And, yes, anonymous is fine. Send to me at kackerman@cox.net.)

All the best. --KenA

Bring Me Your Mind.

Hui-k'o, who would be the Second Patriarch of Ch'an, stood in the snow outside the cave. To show Bodhidharma his sincerity to learn the Dharma, Hui-k'o cut off his arm and said, "Your disciple's mind has no peace as yet. Master, please, put it to rest."

Bodhidharma said, "Bring me your mind, and I will put it to rest." Hui-k'o said, "I have searched for my mind, but I cannot find it." Bodhidharma said, "I have completely put it to rest for you."

~Peace to all beings~

The Beltway Unbuckled

Be sure to tune in to The Beltway Unbuckled, a new History Channel documentary premiering this week. You'll see me as a Talk Head during the segment on J. Edgar Hoover.

Here's the writeup from History.com:

"Sex has played a role throughout America's history. Did you know an extramarital affair was one of the causes of the Civil War? Or that one of the things that made George Washington so appealing as a presidential choice was his sterility? This special takes a serious but highly entertaining look at the fascinating ways the sex lives of our nation's leaders have impacted American history and shaped the country we live in today. Some of the stories uncovered: how J. Edgar Hoover used his secret sex files to become one of the most powerful figures in Washington; although Woodrow Wilson may have won World War I, his wife Edith may have caused World War II; why FDR's dreams for the post World War II world were contained in the long lost diary of one of the women who was with him when he died; and how JFK's fling with an East German beauty nearly ended his administration. "

New Mexico, USA will Abolish the Death Penalty.

The New Mexico Senate voted to abolish capital punishment, a measure already approved by the lower House that Governor Bill Richardson must sign before it goes into effect, the Senate said on its website. Supporters of the measure argue that replacing the death sentence with life in prison without parole would save the state more than one million dollars a year. There are about 10 US states currently considering repealing the death penalty, which is applied in 36 of the 50 states in the union.

James: The death penalty has no place in civilized society and in my opinion not in Buddhism either. Consider this tale from the Rajaparikatha-ratnamala, which was advice given to King Udayi from the great Indian-Buddhist philosopher Nagajuna:

The Rajaparikatha-ratnamala or The Precious Garland of Advice for the King is a treatise attributed to the famous South Indian Buddhist philosopher Nagarjuna (2nd or 3rd century AD). In this work on Buddhist statecraft, Nagarjuna gives King Udayi of the Satavahana Dynasty advice on a variety of matters. Here is how Nagarjuna handles capital punishment:

O King, through compassion you should always< style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">Even for all those embodied beings Who have committed appalling sins. Especially generate compassion For those murderers, whose sins are horrible; Those of fallen nature are receptacles Of compassion from those whose nature is great.... Once you have analyzed the angry Murderers and recognized them well, You should banish them without Killing or tormenting them.

Banishment or exile has been employed as a form of sanction in various pre-modern Asian legal systems. Indeed, banishment has also been employed at times in the West. Although banishment obviously entails psychological and physical hardships, it is certainly to be preferred to death. Moreover, it can protect the convicted defendant from the possible wrath of friends or family of the victim.

James: I see banishment and exile today as life in prison without the possibility of parole, which is a very humane yet punitive way to deal with murders and other serious felons. I think whether we kill prisoners or not says more about us than the prisoners. As I've said here before the death penalty is excessive and continues the cycle and energy of anger, hatred and lust for violence and revenge.

Attention must be focused upon the person having to do the actual killing of these prisoners--the executioners. It is probably nearly impossible to kill people over and over and not be negatively effected emotionally and possibly karmically. I have seen several anti-death penalty videos showing former executioners who are still tormented with the visions of a botched electricution of a prisoner or of seeing their faces before being the one to administer the punishment. In these videos many of these executioners are now against capital punishment.

The Dhammapada states:

Everyone fears punishment; everyone fears death, just as you do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill. Everyone fears punishment; everyone loves life, as you do. Therefore do not kill or cause to kill.

Knowing this, how can we Buddhists support state sanctioned killing in our names? Being o.k. with someone having to be the official executioner is "causing to kill." We go about our lives often not thinking of the burden that someone has of killing people in our names. Just because we don't think of it nor are we personally involved in the killing doesn't mean that we as a society are immune from heavy, less skillful karma.

~Peace to all beings~

P.S.~To the Michael who was selected from the drawing for the Enso-Zen t-shirt. I need to hear from you so that I can send it to you. If I don't hear from you by this coming Friday then I'll have to give it to someone else.

Diamond in the Ruff.

Meditation is many things to me. It is the ultimate medication--like garlic it's helps just about everything.

Today's meditation was like sitting under a water fall after a long day of marching through a steamy, exhausting jungle. As I sat there each breath washed away grime of delusions built up in my mind to once again reveal the Buddha nature within all things.

In keeping with the three jewels imagery I see Buddha-nature as a perfectly cut and brilliant diamond buried in the mud of the delusions, greed, anger within the hologram of the self. It gives me perspective to see the self as a suit coat that one wears to work. It can be put on but also taken off and that it only has form when I wrap myself in it.

It is not permanently strapped to me though at times I get so used to it and I forget that I'm wearing it and those are times of delusion thinking that the suit coat gives me comfort but it is a false sense of comfort. It might bring slight warmth (pay raise) for a time but sooner or later it will become constrictive (attachment to money and power) and cause great discomfort (suffering) and must be shed. The trick is for me to be mindful enough to realize that I don't need the suit (self) to realize retirement (Buddhahood) from the work place (samsara).

But let's get back to the diamond--even when all those layers of mud, dirt and silt cover that diamond of Buddha-nature its essence never dulls or changes. Buddha-nature is indestructible and never loses its luster and pure essence regardless of what covers or conceals it. A diamond can wait for eons locked inside a dark, dirty and hard chunk of rock but it's pure nature never changes. It waits locked inside our karma to be unveiled to bask in the vast openness and freedom of Buddhahood to reflect the glorious light of Nirvana.

PHOTO CREDIT: Click here.

~Peace to all beings~

The Week in Politics: US-Russia, Iran and Hillary's balls

In the same week that marks International Women’s Day, it would be relevant to pay tribute this week to a woman who has certainly proven that she has balls (pun intended). This woman, of course, is US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who this week sought single-handedly to reverse decades of tensions and hostilities between the USA, Iran and Russia and impose the new American administration’s views upon the world.

She was in Brussels this week on what was her first trip to Europe as Secretary of State, and held discussions with both NATO and EU bodies on topics relations with Russia for NATO and climate change for the EU. Two increasingly important topics.

While on Thursday we learnt that NATO will resume high-level contacts with Russia after having frozen contacts over the conflict between Russia and Georgia, the most interesting development in my eyes came on Tuesday when the world learnt of President Obama’s letter to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.

In this letter Mr Obama asked for his counterpart’s support in stopping Iran acquiring long-range missiles. As a trade-off for their support, he is thought to have proposed scrapping the USA’s plan for a missile defence shield to be constructed across Eastern Europe, a plan that quite frankly is one of paranoid-drenched madness.

The US maintains that its planned missile defence system in Europe was conceived to destroy incoming ballistic missiles fired from "rogue states", such as North Korea and Iran, but seen from Russian eyes, this interpretation could also easily be seen to include them, and as a consequence be interpreted as a renewed effort to recreate another east-west division (albeit this time virtual not concrete).

Even its proposed location is significant because those countries were the barrier would be were part of the now defunct Soviet Union, which in the view of the Kremlin still falls within its sphere of interest. The Russian’s therefore were understandably unhappy with the USA’s defence shield plan and the EU was most likely uncomfortably also as this would not only intrude upon its own defence strategies but also give the Russians the impression that it was overtly cooperating against them; an act that could so easily have triggered Cold War II.

But one must still ask whether such a defence shield is really necessary? The Iranian military insists its missiles have a range of only 2,000km (approximately 1,240 miles) which would mean they could potentially hit targets in Greece, Bulgaria or Romania, all of whom are NATO member states. But America, being America, is extremely paranoid and does not believe that. After all, relations between the USA and Iran can hardly be described as warm, friendly and ‘special’ in the same terms as that of the UK.

Just last week I finished watching the BBC2 series ‘Iran and the West’ that I had downloaded, which was an extremely interesting programme outlining this key events in this relationship. From the citizen revolution which disposed of the US-supported Shah in favour of the banished Ayatollah Khomeini, who preached his revolutionary messages from a small safe house on the outskirts of Paris, US-Iran relations have never been great.

In November 1979 the US embassy in Tehran was overpowered by Iranian students who took 63 staff hostage and prompted the US severing all diplomatic ties and imposing strict sanctions upon Iran. Initially the students demanded that the Shah return from the US to Iran to face trial, but later their demands changed to require the USA to promise it never interferes in its affairs in the future. Evidently the superpower did not comply and the subsequent failure of a top-secret military attempt to rescue the hostages did nothing help the USA’s cause nor did the mistakenly shooting down of an Iranian Airbus by a US gunboat in July 1983…

With Hillary’s husband Bill as US president and Muhammad Khatami elected to the position of Iranian President in 1997, there was a brief glimmer of hope as Khatami appealed for a "dialogue with the American people" in American TV interview he requested set up. However, this hope was short-lived, when in a sermon a few weeks later he was sharply critical of the US and its "oppressive policies".

Then, when in January 2002 the-then president George W Bush describes Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address, it became near impossible to see any cooperation and resumption of friendly ties being resumed.

While these are only a small number of incidents (more here*), there is a long-running animosity between the two countries, perhaps as hotly contentious as that between Russia and the USA. So is President Obama’s plan realistic or just extremely optimistic? His campaign may have revolved around the banner of ‘hope’, but I think that this latest step is simply just too hopeful.

Indeed, the arrival of Obama in the White House has exhaled a huge breathe of fresh optimistic air around the world, bought about a renewed sense of global friendships and more importantly brought about a sense of real change. Unsurprisingly, UK Prime Minister was very quick to head to the States and reaffirm the UK’s love and support of America in his speech to Congress. Mr Brown recognises that America is moving forward.

But can the same be said about US-Russia relations? Is there a real possibility now that the Cold War sentiments are really going to evaporate away? Perhaps not entirely. The USA may want a fresh-start but that certainly wasn’t the message that Secretary of State Clinton delivered to Moscow on Saturday (albeit unintentionally).

In case you missed this piece of news, Hillary Clinton gave her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, a mock "reset" button with the complete intention for the gift to symbolise the USA’s hope to mend its frayed ties with Moscow. A good gesture in itself, it didn’t have quite the desired effect as the word written on the button was "peregruzka" meaning "overloaded" or "overcharged", rather than the desired "reset".

Naturally this was a too good an opportunity for the Russian press to miss, and so they poked fun at the Americans, with the one of the daily newspapers Kommersant apparently declared on its front page rather wittily: "Sergei Lavrov and Hillary Clinton push the wrong button."

In true Woman’s Day fashion, Hillary Clinton said in a statement this week that “women's full participation is the key for the international community to combat challenges in the 21st century, since women have a crucial role in tackling major issues such as the global economic crisis, sectarian warfare and terrorism.” She is certainly making her mark and combating the challenges of the 21st century, and her efforts have already bought about changes this week. With talks due with Turkey and China next, you have to wonder what will be next…

Economic Stimulus? Bring back Boss Tweed

Don't misunderstand. Stealing is wrong. Graft is bad.

Still, watching today's politicians in Washington tripping over themselves trying to figure out ways to stimulate the economy, I get nostalgic for the master. Bring back Boss Tweed.

William Magear Tweed, Boss of New York's Tammany Hall machine in the 1860s and 70s, controlled mayors, governors, newspapers, and companies. He kept his power by stealing elections. He used his power to steal from the city and county -- for an astounding estimated $100 million (billions of dollars in modern money) during his relatively brief time at the pinnacle.

But Tweed also used his power to build. Talk about infrastructure? Tweed and his Tammany crowd did more to modernize New York and bring immigrants and the working poor into the social mainstream than anyone else in his generation. Tweed didn't need a "Stimulus Package" to grease the economy. He used the direct way -- graft. He spent the city into a $100 million deficit, mostly borrowed from investors in Europe who had no idea they were being bilked. Most of the cash went to pay politicians and hire legions of laborers. But along the way, it helped spark an economic boom.

Boss Tweed knew how to spread the wealth around. The rich, the poor, all prospered. Stock prices and property values both soared. Taxes stayed low. His system collapsed only when the New York Times got its hands on a purloined copy of the Tweed Ring's secret account books and exposed them on its front pages -- the journalistic Scoup of the Nineteenth Century. By then, Tweed had been humiliated by the cartoon satires of Thomas Nast of Harper's Weekly (see cartoon above), making him an easy mark for a politically ambitious prosecutor like Samuel Tilden.

A year after Tweed's fall from power, in 1873, a financial panic threw New York and the country into the worst economic depression ever expeirienced till that time.

Graft aside, Tweed's regime left the city and country wonderfully enriched: Their fingerprints are on every major NY creation of the Gilded Age: Central Park, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Tweed Courthouse, new widened streets and sidewalks, the New York Stock Exchange, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mount Sinai Hospital, and dozens of charities. The list is almost endless. And they left a tradition of political inclusion, a "wide tent" approach as similiar to Barack Obama and John McCain as the stories of foul play.

But for the stealing -- which, to be clear, was wrong -- he was a great man.

Tweed would know how to get the country moving again in today's financial mess. Just don't watch too closely. "Transparency" certainly was never part of his approach. Tweed's methods were not for the squeamish.

For more, see my own book: Boss Tweed, the Corrupt who Conveived the Soul of Modorn New York.

Many People, Many Paths, One Dharma.

As skillful means we can employ whatever is useful, whatever is truly helpful. For each of us at different times, different traditions, philosophical constructs, and methods may serve us, either because of temperament, background, or capacities. For some, the language of emptiness may be as dry as the desert, while for others it may reveal the heart-essence of liberation.

Some may quickly recognize the nature of awareness itself, while others emphasize the letting go of those mind states that obscure it. Some may find that the path of devotion truly empties the self, but for others this way may simply act as a cloud of self-delusion. We each need great honesty of introspection and wise guidance from teachers to find our own skillful path.

-Joseph Goldstein, from One Dharma (HarperOne)

James: We are all apart of the same wheel (Dharma Wheel) but represent different parts based on our karma. Some are spokes, some are apart of the hub and still others are the rim. The same is true of the skillful means mentioned above being emptiness, awareness, letting go of those mind states and devotion. All are intigral parts of the Dharma Wheel. In my opinion, the same can be said for the different Buddhist schools, which people follow often based on karma, tradition, culture, education and philosophy--amongst other reasons.

PHOTO CREDIT: CLICK HERE.

~Peace to all beings~

We're all socialists now? If so, then where is our Eugene Debs?

OK, Guerrilla Historians, let's be clear. Do we really live in a new age of Americn socialism?

If so, then here's my question: Where is our Eugene Debs?

Yes, after months of government bailouts of banks, investment firms, insurance giants, car companies, and all the rest, it sure looks a lot like public control of the means of production. But that kind of talk is European socialism. Don't forget, in America, we had our own home-grown brand, articulated by the likes of Big Bill Haywood (founder of the radical Industrial Workers of the World or IWW), Emma Goldman (who perferred being called Anarchist and was highly disillisioned by Lenin's Bolsheviks), and its clearest, most articulate voice of all, Eugene Debs.

Debs ran for president five times as a socialist, winning almost a million votes -- six percent of the total popular count -- both in 1912 and 1920 (even though in 1920 he ran from a Federal prison cell). Debs avoided esoteric theory. He defined his socialism in terms of justice, community, solidarity, and self-reliance, stemming from Jefferson and Lincoln as much as Marx or Engels. That's why he was so popular, not in universities, but in the American heartland and in working and immigrant neighborhoods.

To Debs, the evil of capitalism was no abstraction. Debs formed his peculiar view of socialism after leading the epic Pullman Palace Car strike of 1894, started as strictly non-violent and ultimately crushed by vigilantees, detectives, and Federal troops. Debs himself was jailed in the affair for violating an injunction, and that was where we first read Karl Marx. Debs would go to prison again, in 1918, convicted under the Espionage Act for speaking out against the draft and suppression of free speech during World War I.

This was the age of sweat shops and worse, long before basic health and safety rules, pensions, or worker rights. Resisters like Debs risked being blacklisted, jailed, or lynched. The rise of labor back then was the great civil rights / human rights struggle of the age.

Our society in 2009 has changed dramatically from Eugene Debs's America a century ago. But if we all now have to become socialists to get through the current economic collapse, then I at least want a leader like Debs, a socialist not ashamed of the name, willing to fight as an underdog, prepared to sacrifice personal freedom for principle, and able, through his speeches, to inspire his followers to march cheerfully to the barricades.

If you think I'm a fan, I can't deny the obvious. Here are two great recent books about Debs that might win you over too:

--Democracy's Prisoner: Eugene Debs, the Great War, and the Right to Dissent, by Ernest Freeberg and
-- Eugene V. Debs: Citizen and Socialist, by Nick Salvatore.
-- Hear his voice on YouTube.

My Past Lives as a Tibetan Monk.

I was a bit skeptical about past lives until I had this very, vivid dream--which also party triggered my investigation and interest in Buddhism. I found myself dressed in some kind of colorful, flowing robe. The colors being a purplish maroon and the other was a yellowish golden color. The robe seemed to be an eggplant color with the golden yellow as trim. I had no clue at that point in my life that those are the colors of Tibetan Buddhist monks; in fact I didn’t know much of anything about Buddhism in general!!

A man dressed in similar robes accompanied me but his robes were bluer with the golden yellow trim. He was my guide as we walked up this slope of a massive mountaintop. I could tell that we were very high up because the vegetation was mostly tundra with a few scraggly trees. The sky was a breathtaking shade of crystal blue with only a hint of wispy clouds. A slight breeze was playfully tossing the fabric of my billowy robes about. I felt so at peace with my guide and in my surroundings. I can’t remember his face but I had a deep feeling of connection with him. He felt like a long lost friend whom I had known for ages.

As we rounded the summit of this great peak I saw a large Buddha-like statue with a crisp, clear stream of water gushing out of the statue’s mouth. My guide told me to drink the water, so I cupped my hands and drank. And as I swallowed this cool, clean mountain water I realized that I was very thirsty and I remember it was so refreshing and delicious.

Thus, I drank more and more of this elixir. As I drank my guide informed me that the water I was drinking was no ordinary water. He said, “It is special water. Water that will bring you vitality and long-life” and with that he gave me a warm smile. Then, as I gazed transfixed into his peaceful face I was transported out of the dream with a blink just like someone changed the channel on the t.v.

As it turns out my research shows that blue and yellow are the two colors in the Karmapa Dream Flag. “The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, well known for his visions and prophesies, designed this flag from a vision that came to him in a dream. He called it “Namkhyen Gyaldar (Victorious Flag of Buddha’s Wisdom).” He proclaimed, “Wherever this banner is flown the Dharma will flourish.”[i]

According to that same webpage cited above, the inner meaning of this flag is that the blue represents vision and spiritual insight, which is exactly what my dream was for me. In addition, the yellow represents our experiences in the everyday world and certainly my everyday experiences were weighing heavily upon me when I had this dream. So I see this dream as a wake up call that the spiritual insight of the dream represented by Buddhism would be the path that would help me find peace and reduce my great suffering (I was struggling greatly at the time in my life on what to do. I was lost in a nihilist fog at the time of this dream).

It seems that the Karmapa’s Dream Flag took the form of my guides robe colors and the pure, clean water was to quench my thirst for peace and stability through the Dharma. I personally feel that the dream overall it was a reminder of a past life that I must have lived as a novice Tibetan Buddhist monk.

I've had a second, as vivid dream about what I see as a past life in Tibet. I was on a journey all alone in a mountainous land. I was again wearing maroon robes and was on some quest of sorts to find a hermit monk off in the foothills near a grand, blue, wind-swept lake. Well, imagine my surprise and shock when I watched the movie Kundun and saw the exact same lake from my dream in the movie!! It was Lhamo I' Latso or the "Oracle Lake. It is a sacred (considered the most sacred actually), famous lake known for visions and thus no surprise I guess why I experienced that past memory in a dream.

I had the dream about the lake before I had seen the movie. I think these dreams are partly why I was initially attracted to Tibetan Buddhism when I began studying the Dharma in this life.

It is because of these two dreams, the reality of the life cycle of the four seasons and the physics law that nothing every disappears but simply changes form. For example, sunlight lives on in the form of electricity transformed through solar panels. It lives on in trees, which are later used to create paper to make books. Thus the sun lives on in trees, paper, books, ink, and on and on.

---

[i] Harderwijk, Rudy. “Tibetan Buddhist Symbols.” A View on Buddhism. Ed. Rudy Harderwijk. 10

October 2006. 8 July 2008. http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/symbols_tibet_buddhism.htm#

~Peace to all beings~

The Hat Has Spoken.

Just wanted to make a quick post saying that the person getting the enso t-shirt was selected from the hat and that person is....

Michael!! So Michael congratulations and please email at: jaymur-at-gmail.com with your address so that I can send it out to you. Thanks everyone.

~Peace to all beings~

Thomas Nast on Wall Street

This week, in honor of the Dow Jones Average hitting its lowest point in twelve years, I though it fitting to pull out Thomas Nast's famous 1869 cartoon tribute to Wall Street following that year's front-page financial debacle. It was in September 1869 that young Jay Gould and James Fisk Jr. perpetrated perhaps the single most audatious financial play in American history, their attempt to corner the national gold supply.

Gould and Fisk almost pulled it off after bribing dozens of government officials and buying over $100 million in gold calls. The bubble burst on Black Friday, September 24, when gold prices collapsed from 160 to 130 in about ten minutes. The result was a cascade of ruin, dozens of bankruptcies, panic in the stock market, frozen trade and credit, and the first major scandal for the new administration of President Ulysses Grant.

Of course, when Fisk and Gould attempted their corner back in 1869, it was decades before the invention of our modern system of financial regulation. There was no SEC, no CFTC, no Federal Reserve, no effective bank regulators, no honest court system (Boss Tweed still ran tings in NYC), and the rest.

Today, 140 years later, what's our excuse?

Read more about the Fisk-Gould corner in my book THE GOLD RING.

Meanwhile, I hope your money (or whateverr part of it you have left) is safe. --KenA