The Lonesome Death of Sylvia

Marissa Nadler is an undiscovered talent.

Today, I'm in the mood for this kind of song. Go have a piece of chocolate.

No Sinners

In Buddhism, bad actions are merely termed as unskillful or unwholesome, and not as sinful.

Buddhism teaches that everyone is responsible for his or her own good and bad deeds, and that each individual can mold his or her own destiny.

Our sorrow is of our own making. Buddhists do not accept the belief that this world is merely a place of trial and testing. This world is a place where we can attain the highest perfection.

Regarding forgiveness, the Buddhist has no reason to believe that the "sinner" can escape the consequences of his or her actions by the grace of an external power. If we thrust our hand into a furnace, the hand will be burnt, and all the prayer in the world will not remove the scars.

We must realize that evil actions are prompted by evil states of mind.

The wicked person is an ignorant one who needs instruction more than punishment and condemnation.

All that is necessary is for someone to help them to use their reason to realize that they are responsible for their wrong action and that they must pay for the consequences.

The purpose of the Buddha's appearance in this world is not to wash away the sins committed by human beings nor to punish or to destroy wicked people, but to make them understand how foolish it is to commit evil and to point out the consequences of such evil deeds.

Go, now, and develop a skillful life!

It's Easier to Believe

One of my favorite sayings is, "It's easier to believe than to know."

What I mean is that anyone can believe anything about everything. Belief requires nothing but belief.

On the other hand, to know something requires effort. The effort to challenge your belief. The effort to seek and assimilate knowledge outside of yourself. The effort to educate yourself in an area in which you are ignorant (meaning that you do not know).

The effort is all the difference.

Are you willing to make it?

It's nice to have the courage of your convictions; but it's harder and more rewarding to have the courage to challenge your convictions.

Make the effort to know. You'll find rewards you never expected. 

Visit www.factcheck.org and www.wikipedia.org because knowledge is at your fingertips.

Palin-drome

This is a lighter side than I usually show, but it relates to the two articles on propaganda this week. Do you know what a palindrome is? Look it up and then read the cards. Enjoy.

What is Propaganda?

The two articles this week are related to the same issue. The first examines propaganda; the second looks at why people believe it.

Why am I looking at these questions? Most recently, I was blown away by the full bore myth and propaganda created around the Republican vice-presidential candidate, and how emotionally and quickly she was embraced by the media and by that party's faithful. It was not a rational response.

So what is propaganda? Basically, it is a set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviors of large numbers of people. Propaganda often presents facts selectively to encourage an emotional rather than rational response to the information presented.

Also, propaganda also has a close relationship with censorship, by preventing people from being confronted with opposing points of view. Where you find propaganda, you'll see its twin of censorship.

What sets propaganda apart from other forms of advocacy is the willingness of the propagandist to change people's understanding through deception and confusion rather than persuasion and understanding.

So what forms of propaganda did I see surrounding the v.p. choice?

1. Attack your opponents, rather than attacking their arguments.

2. Repeat an idea, especially a simple slogan, so that it is taken as the truth.

3. Appeal to fear by instilling anxieties and panic in the general population.

4. Appeal to the common man by convincing the audience that the propagandist's positions reflect the common sense of the people.

5. Demonizing the enemy through suggestion or false accusations.

6. Flag-waving is an attempt to justify an action on the grounds that doing so will make one more patriotic.

7. Glittering generalities are emotionally appealing words, but which present no concrete argument or analysis.

8. Persuade a target audience to disapprove of an action or idea by suggesting that the idea is popular with groups hated, feared, or held in contempt by the target audience.

9. Use virtue words that are in the value system of the target audience which tend to produce a positive image when attached to a person or issue. Peace, happiness, security, wise leadership, freedom, "The Truth", etc. are virtue words.

Others that come to mind are: Over simplification, quotes out of context, name calling, and scapegoating.

All of these were on full display at the recent RNC, the media buzz and emails following the Republican vice presidential selection.

Combat Propaganda

If you read my post on propaganda, you now know what it is.

So how do you dispel it?

Basically through an openness to impartial information. Unless those two elements exist, the belief generated by the propaganda will persist.

For example, a majority of Americans still believe that Iraq had something to do with 9/11. That view, relentlessly presented by the current administration, has long since been debunked.

Yet it persists.

The problem is that denials and clarifications tend to reinforce the propaganda.

Once an idea has been implanted in a person's mind, it can be difficult to dislodge. Denials inherently require repeating the bad information.

Repetition seems to be a key culprit. One of the brain's rules of thumb is that easily recalled things are true.

In politics, this means that whoever makes the first assertion about something has a large advantage over everyone who denies it later.

The brain is not good at remembering when and where a person first learned something. People are not good at keeping track of which information came from credible sources and which came from less trustworthy ones, or even remembering that some information came from the same untrustworthy source over and over again. Even if a person recognizes which sources are credible and which are not, repeated assertions and denials can have the effect of making the information more accessible in memory and thereby making it feel true.

So rather than denying a false claim, it is better to make a completely new assertion that makes no reference to the original propaganda.

Rather than saying "Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11", which reinforces the connection, it may be better to say that "Osama bin Laden was the only one involved with planning the 9/11 attacks."

Regardless, those who fight propaganda have the odds against them. The keys are openness and impartial information, and the willingness to entertain both.

Akaskero - Sungha Jung

This cannot be learned! It is an enormous talent that is honed into a wonderful skill.

The Buddhist's Lord's Prayer

Every Christian is familiar with the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).  Some say that the purpose of this prayer is to provide a guide as to how to pray.

I suspect that many prayers follow this wonderful and enlightened guide.  

I also suspect that many more prayers are made as an entreaty for some kind of divine intervention: to change the behavior of another, to change the outcome of a severe illness, to change one's financial condition, etc.

But what is a Buddhist's view of prayer?

In Buddhism, prayer is meditation which has self-change as its object. Prayer in meditation acts as an aid to understand one's nature. It attempts to purify three faculties -— thought, word and deed. Through meditation, we can understand that 'we become what we think'. 

The Buddha once used an analogy of a man who wants to cross a river. If he sits down and prays, imploring that the far bank of the river will come to him and carry him across, then his prayer will not be answered. If he really wants to cross the river, he must make some effort; he must find some logs and build a raft, or look for a bridge or construct a boat or perhaps swim. Somehow he must work to get across the river. Likewise, if he wants to cross the river of suffering, prayers alone are not enough. He must work hard by living a religious life, by controlling his passions, calming his mind, and by getting rid of all the impurities and defilements in his mind. 

A Buddhist poet has offered this meditation to cultivate the mind (perhaps as a Buddhist's Lord's Prayer): 

'Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them. Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it. Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved, but for the patience to win my freedom.'

Proud Liberal

What would America be like without the liberal advances of the past sixty or seventy years? 

Without the extraordinary contribution of liberals — from the mightiest presidents to the most unheralded protesters and organizers — the United States would be a much, much worse place than it is today.

Civil rights? Women’s rights? Liberals went to the mat for them time and again against ugly, vicious and sometimes murderous opposition. They should be forever proud.

The liberals gave us Social Security and unemployment insurance, both of which were contained in the original Social Security Act. Most conservatives despised the very idea of this assistance to struggling Americans. Republicans hated Social Security, but most were afraid to give full throat to their opposition in public at the height of the Depression.

Liberals gave us Medicare and Medicaid. Quick, how many of you (or your loved ones) are benefiting mightily from these programs, even as we speak. It's telling that Republicans are proud of Ronald Reagan, who saw Medicare as "the advance wave of socialism," while they actively and forcefully demand the benefits of it.

Delusional and hypocritical.

Without the many great and noble deeds of liberals over the past six or seven decades, America would hardly be recognizable to today’s young people. Liberals (including liberal Republicans, who have since been mostly drummed out of the party) ended legalized racial segregation and gender discrimination.

Liberals gave this country Head Start and legal services and the food stamp program. They fought for cleaner air and cleaner water.

Liberals. Your food is safer because of them, and so are your children’s clothing and toys. Your workplace is safer. Your ability (or that of your children or grandchildren) to go to college is manifestly easier.

It would take volumes to adequately cover the enhancements to the quality of American lives and the greatness of American society that have been wrought by people whose politics were unabashedly liberal. 

It is a track record that deserves to be celebrated.

The Times They Are A-Changin

This song rings of hope and despair all at once. May the hope grow and the despair fade.

The Four Immeasurables

I recently saw a sign in front of a church, which said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." I am sure that had a profound meaning to the person who put up that sign.

But it got me to thinking about the beginning of wisdom, from a Buddhist perspective. The beginning of wisdom is achieved through the Four Immeasurables.

The Buddha taught his monks to arouse four states of mind, sometimes called the "Four Immeasurables" or the "Four Perfect Virtues."

The four states are equanimity, loving kindness, compassion and sympathetic joy. These four states inter-relate and support each other.

Equanimity is a mind in balance, free of discrimination and rooted in insight. This balance is not indifference, but actively and objectively seeing things as they are, without preconceptions.

Loving Kindness is benevolence toward all beings, without discrimination or selfish attachment. By practicing loving kindness, a Buddhist overcomes anger, ill will, hatred and aversion. A Buddhist should cultivate for all beings the same love a mother would feel for her child.

Compassion is active sympathy extended to all sentient beings. It is compassion that removes the heavy bar, opens the door to freedom, makes the narrow heart as wide as the world.

Sympathetic Joy is taking selfless or altruistic joy in the happiness of others. The cultivation of sympathetic joy is an antidote to envy and jealousy.

These four qualities, nurtured both through meditation and action, are the beginning of wisdom.

Better Aspirations

What have we done lately? Have we had a successful national initiative since 1969 and the moon landing?

If you look back at the recent years, our nation has achieved nothing in which we can take pride in as a nation; some wondrous act that people generations from now will study as examples for an enlightened, productive and just society.

I'm talking about the achievements such as: John Kennedy's challenge to land a man on the moon; Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, and the Civil Rights Act; Dwight Eisenhower's national highway program; Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, the victory in WWII, the G.I. Bill, and his vision for the United Nations; Theodore Roosevelt's Square Deal, and the regulation of corrupt and monopolistic industries; Abraham Lincoln's ending of slavery, and his superhuman effort to hold our nation together; and finally, the First Transcontinental Railroad, the Monroe Doctrine and the Louisiana Purchase.

Since July 20, 1969, when an American set foot on the moon, what have we done with commitment and pride?

Since that time, a materialistic corruption has ruled American policies. How else can we explain the incompetence, the scandals, the corruption, the waste, the giveaways to those with much, the convicted lobbyists and the no-bid contracts? My explanation is that some in government want government to fail, so that Americans no longer believe that great things are possible. A disengaged citizenry is easier to manipulate.

I have a different view from this. Here are our next great achievements: lift working families out of poverty with supports for transportation, health care, nutrition, child care, education, housing, and other basic needs; resolve conflicts, reduce violence, and defeat terrorism without preemptive war; institute a consistent ethic of life (reduce abortion, end capital punishment, and stop genocide); strengthen human rights and promote human dignity; protect our planet from the interests and activities that damage it (reverse global climate change and develop clean, renewable energy); skillful measures to strengthen families must become a personal and national priority (without scapegoating gays, immigrants, or people diverse race, faiths or ethnicity).

Forty years of nothing is enough. Better aspirations and goals await us. We have been and can be a better nation than this.

So don't believe the lie that government is the problem. We the American people are the government, and it is time that once again we use it for our own greatness and for the benefit of all peoples of our shared planet.